Wildflowers
by TheTruthInLies
Summary: Kagome was being chased in the rain by Inuyasha.She sprained her ankle but continued to run blindly from him.That is until she ran into something,or rather someone,and passed out.Meanwhile,a wildflower's scent intoxicates a certain demon lord.SessxKag
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Running**

The hard, cold, rain came crashing down on her face like needles as she ran. Her legs were on fire. It felt like she had been running for an eternity. The rain masked her tears but the salty scent could not be hidden from demons in the surrounding area. This fact gave her all the motivation she needed to keep running. She tripped over something, a small pebble or maybe even her own feet, and fell into a puddle of mud.

_Ugh, this is the last thing I need,_ She thought. She wiped the tears from her face and just laid there catching her breath. _Maybe he's gone…_

"Kagome! Kagome! It's not what you think!" Inuyasha's voice called from the distance.

_Shit, if I stay here he'll definitely find me. I don't know if I can keep running like this._She tried to pick herself up off the ground but fell down again. There was a searing pain in her ankle, but despite the pain she got back up and sprinted in a direction she was sure that Inuyasha was not in.

"Kagome! It really wasn't what you think!"

_The hell that wasn't what I thought it was. I know what I saw. I'm done with it. He can have Kikyo! I'm tired of all of the lies. I never want to see his face again._

She stopped by a tree to catch her breath and to put the weight off of her ankle. She paused. She couldn't hear anything. There was nothing to be heard but the sound of the heavy raindrops pelting the leaves and the forest floor.

She closed her eyes and sighed in relief. She was so tired she wished that she could drop right there and take a nap. The relief, unfortunately, was only temporary. Her eyes snapped open upon hearing the snap of a stick. Out of the corner of her eye there was a flash of red. She didn't need any further investigation to start running again. She was off in a flash, away from there as quickly as her injured ankle would allow. However, her growing fatigue from the pain of the situation and her throbbing ankle made her much too slow for her liking. For fear of not running fast enough from her pursuer she glanced behind her to search for any sign of him catching up. Her disorientation and instant of not looking in the direction that she was going caused her to run into something, something hard. Expecting to fall back to the ground she drew her arms to her chest and braced herself. She felt so week she knew there was no way that she could ever catch herself. She waited for impact but the ground never came. She was so exhausted; she didn't have time to come up with a logical explanation to make sense of the situation. She let her body go limp and her eyes droop. Whatever had been supporting her before continued to keep her from coming in contact with the ground. She didn't care what it was but she was glad it was supporting her.

Everything was a blur now as she was attempting to fight off the sleep that was taking over her. She opened her eyes as far as she could. Through blurred vision she could see a mixture of gold, red and mostly white. Exhaustion won and everything went black as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Golden eyes gazed down at the unconscious girl…

/\/\/\/\

"Jaken," the lord of the west addressed the imp.

"Yes, milord?" Jaken trembled under the towering taiyoukai.

"This Sesshomaru is going to survey the area. Set up camp and see to it that Rin is kept safe," He briefly glanced over at the girl picking some wildflowers in a nearby clearing. "And if you should fail, it will be your head, Jaken."

"Yes milord," Jaken cowered, "I shall be sure to take care of the human sufficiently." Jaken bowed before his lord.

"Hn." The lord turned to walk away.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin ran up to him and hugged his legs from behind. "Please come back soon." She said with a smile. "Here," Sesshomaru turned to face her, "take this." She held out a small purple wild flower.

"Insolent human! Lord Sesshomaru does not have need for things such as your weeds. You really must stop bothering Lord Sesshomaru with such trivial matters." Rin looked down. One could almost see her heart sink. The imp glared at the child and in turn the inu gave a chilling stare directed toward the foolish imp. Jaken flinched.

"My most sincere apologies my lord, I did not mean to interrupt." He bowed and backed away slowly from the two.

Rin looked up at her lord with her innocent, watery eyes. Sesshomaru closed his own golden orbs. If the lord of the west were to ever sigh in exasperation, at this moment he would have. He looked at the girl without emotion and put his only hand on her head. He then carefully took the small flower between his thumb and index finger as if to not damage the plant.

"I shall be returning soon, Rin." The little girl smiled up at her lord understanding that he did not agree with Jaken's statement. She had known him long enough to understand his feelings without facial expressions. She happily skipped away, back to the field of wildflowers. Sesshomaru then turned back around and continued on his way to survey the surrounding lands for threats.

It had been several hours since he left their camp. The sky had long since become dark and was beginning to become saturated with clouds. Sesshomaru brought his nose up toward the rising moon to sniff the air around him.

_It is likely to rain soon._He thought just before a raindrop kissed his marked forehead. He sniffed the air once more, _a demon,_ he thought. In a snap he whipped around and caught the attacker by its neck. The creature did not even have the time to gasp let alone cry out in sweet agony. Sesshomaru snapped his neck as soon as he had seen yellow of his eyes surrounding its black slit of a pupil. He let the demon drop to the forest floor, still twitching. As if the sky was mourning for the pathetic demon that thought he might stand a chance against the great lord, it suddenly begun to down pour. He gazed up at the sky again, the moon now completely hidden by the heavy rain clouds below its luminous glow.

Though the surrounding water would create a difficult task to detect smells for many other weaker demons, it had not hindered the lord's senses in the least. Still staring at the cloudy sky his powerful taiyoukai senses took in his surroundings. At the moment all that could be heard was the pattering sound of the harsh rain falling on the leaves. But then there was a harsher sound, a pounding on the earth much harsher than even the pattering raindrops.

_This sound. Feet. Two sets, one heavier than the other. This sounds as if the heavier is chasing the lighter. A demon chasing a human._ He took a deep breath to take in the smells._ Correction, a half-breed chasing a human…and not just any half-breed._

"Kagome! Kagome! It's not what you think!" as if to confirm Sesshomaru's inquiry the half-breed shouted out.

_Of course, this would solve the mystery as to what the lighter sounds were. The half-breed's wench._ He let himself inhale the scents around him once again. _Death, earth, filth and …this other scent, so familiar and so strong. Even at such a distance this human's scent..._His eyes flashed red for a fraction of a second

"Kagome! It really isn't what you think!" He completely ignored Inuyasha's outburst and went back to his thoughts.

_It is too…not unpleasant to really be a human. This scent seems very familiar as if I've encountered it once before. Almost as if I could faintly smell it before her presence became known to this Sesshomaru._His eyes widened the slightest in realization. He pulled out the small purple wildflower that Rin had given him. He had never actually taken the time to smell the flower that the girl had given him, he simply ignored the scent.

He brought the small flower to his nose, closed his eyes ignoring everything around him and inhaled the sweet scent of the flower. _Yes, the aroma of this wildflower is...not displeasing. _He let the scent flood his sences_._ Having just ignored the world around him and almost getting caught up in the wonderful smell of his little gift from Rin he just barely noticed when something quite large slammed into him from the front. His eyes snapped open and looked down on whatever had made impact. A quick glance told him that whatever it was, it was of no threat. Out of some sort of strange impulse the lord quickly and somehow carefully placed the small flower into his armor and caught the being with his only arm.

_Damnit all! I cannot_ believe_ I let this surprise me. Why is it that this Sesshomaru did not detect its coming?_Upon a quick assessment of the thing in his arms he quickly came to realize that it was in fact Inuyasha's woman. _This smell…_his eyes widened almost noticeably. _Of course…_

The lord gazed down at the girl. She let out a small groan and looked as though she was attempting to open her eyes. She was holding herself up but suddenly she went completely limp putting her weight entirely on the lord's lone arm. It still appeared as if she was attempting to fight off the exhaustion which was apparent in her heavy eyelids but she finally gave in to it. He could feel her breaths evening out and pulse regulating compared to what felt to be like an adrenaline induced increase in heart rate, along with the apparent running. And so, the girl slept in the arm of the killing perfection.

The lord gazed at the sleeping girl in his arm. The rain had begun to let back and had turned to just a light drizzle compared to the pouring only moments before. Now having the time to thoroughly inspect the girl, he could see the girl, being covered in mud, clothes and face were soaking wet, the salty scent of tears and the red puffiness of the area around her eyes made it obvious that she had been crying for whatever reason._Most-likely result of the half-breed's idiocy or emotional abuse, considering the chase_. _Not that this Sesshomaru would care._ She looked a complete mess.

"Kagooomee!" Sesshomaru heard the half-breed cry out.

_The nuisance must not be able to smell her in the rain, especially with her covered in filth like this._He turned his back to the hanyou and paused. _It appears as though the half-breed is going in the wrong direction. Pity._ Seeing how soaked he was himself he decided it would be best to return to his camp. _But the girl…_He formed his youki cloud beneath him. _This Sesshomaru supposes that he might as well bring the girl along._The rain turned into barely a sprinkle. The lord flew low, fast and upwind of the hanyou effectively concealing them and beginning to dry the girl and himself.

By the time they got back to the camp sight the rain had completely stopped. Jaken made a fire that was still going strong. Rin and Jaken were already asleep. Sesshomaru set Kagome down against a large tree. He began to walk over to Rin when he heard shuttering coming from the girl behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see the girl shivering. He almost sighed but kept his emotionless mask on. He felt his pelt and thought for a moment. The pelt had become completely dry from the fly there. The girl appeared to be still a bit damp. He took off his pelt and set it gently on the girl. The shivering almost immediately stopped. She snuggled up against the soft pelt and sighed.

"Thank you mama..." She said quietly. He hid his disgusted expression in the shadows of the canopy above.

_To think I honestly let a disgusting human touch what's mine, especially…my pelt. And I'm letting her sleep with it._He tried to brush the thought of the girl snuggling up to his pelt, spreading her wildflower smell on something so precious to him. The scent was mingling with his own on something he so often wore. He suddenly felt the hair on the back of his neck start to stand up and his fangs reflexively bore, but only for a moment. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brows as he ran his hand through the silky hair on top of his head grasped it.

He turned back around to check on Rin's condition. He knelt down to the sleeping girl. Her face kept scrunching and her brows furrowed and her nose twitched. Her growing bangs were tickling her nose. He gently moved the hair away from her face. Her face then relaxed and reverted to an angelic face of an innocent child. Sesshomaru lingered there for a moment longer to watch the child sleep. He then left to go sit by his own tree and meditate until the morning. And so, the four remained in peace all through the night until the sun rose in the morning.

~End Chapter 1~


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

The rays of the morning sun forced Kagome out of her deep sleep. Her eyelids were heavy and she was still tired from the previous night's events. She snuggled up against something soft and warm.

_So soft…_ She smiled. _Smells good too,_ she inhaled the scent of the fluffy material she was cuddling. She rubbed it against her cheek and smiled. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and looked down at the white fluff. _What is this? How did I…?_Her head started spinning. _This thing… it looks like-_

"Enjoying yourself?" Sesshomaru interrupted her thoughts. She looked up at him, her eyes portraying her surprise. She felt her heart rate speed up, terrified and frozen in place.

_How in the world did I end up like this? This must be Sesshomaru's fluffy thing that he always wears. Oh god, he must be pissed! Um… what do I do? I'm going to be killed! Oh god!_She looked up at his face to gauge his anger and was ready to shield herself. She silently wished for a quick death as she carefully looked for his expression. She saw nothing. His face was as expressionless as it usually was but there was something different. A slim eyebrow had disappeared from under his bangs. She stared at him in surprise. What would have been an inquisitive look on Sesshomaru, turned into a smirk. His eyebrow lowered and returned to match his other slim brow and the corner of his mouth quirked up just enough to be noticeable.

_This girl's very actions have already begun to seem slightly amusing to this Sesshomaru._ He thought the corner of his mouth rising to a more intense smirk.

_Oh god, now he's just thinking of ways to kill me. I've got to get away from here._She stood up slowly picking up Sesshomaru's pelt. She stepped toward him, held it out to him and closed her eyes hoping not to be killed. He accepted the pelt and placed it in its usual position over his shoulder without letting his eyes leave the girl. The flowery scent passed his nose and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise again, but more quickly than she could notice, he collected himself. She held her breath and bowed low.

"I'm sorry Lord Sesshomaru." Her voice was shaky with fear.

"Hn." He smiled slightly his eyes void of emotion. Kagome's eyes went wide.

_There's no way that can be good._She turned on her heel and began to run away hoping that her injured ankle wouldn't slow her down. Sesshomaru's eyes flashed red. Before she could get anywhere he took her hand and slammed her forward into the tree that she was sleeping against the night before. Kagome squeaked and struggled. He was forced to use one of his legs to pin her to the tree to prevent any sort of struggling.

_This is it. I'm gonna die now._She held her breath waiting for some kind of impact or slicing or acid or something else entirely painful. A few seconds passed by. Nothing happened. There was no movement at all. Kagome thought that if she were to move, she would surely die.

_Maybe I've already died… it just hasn't hit me yet and I'm still experiencing my last moments._Her theory was proven completely wrong when she felt his hair brush against her back and then his face nuzzling into her neck. She shivered. _I don't understand…_

Sesshomaru was planning on doing something awful to the girl, though he wasn't sure what. Knowing that she was about to run brought out some sort of animal instinct in him, but he got distracted. All his thoughts of killing were swept away when he saw that her hair had moved and exposed the flesh of her neck. He couldn't help but notice how strong her scent was in the close proximity. He couldn't help himself. He nuzzled into her. He wouldn't say it out loud, but her scent somehow both calmed and excited him at the time. He felt her shiver. This sent him into reality.

_Damn this scent. It completely disorients this Sesshomaru._He quickly stopped what he was doing and pushed the girl into the tree with more force. "This Sesshomaru…did not give you permission to leave, girl." He said sternly. Kagome flinched.

_Was I just dreaming? It must have been my imagination. I was just wishing he wouldn't kill me. But...why would I imagine that? No… never mind, I should be more worried about dying. _Sesshomaru loosened his grip.

"Woman, do not try to run. If you run, I will catch you. There is no way a human such as yourself would be able to outrun this Sesshomaru. This Sesshomaru will tell you when you are allowed to leave. Know your place, wench." He said to her as he backed away from her slowly. Kagome dusted herself off. She could feel the heat rising within her.

"You arrogant bastard!" She was fuming. Not entirely sure of what came over her, she walked up to him, her anger and adrenaline taking over her actions. She poked him in the chest. "Now you listen here, puppy. Who do you think you are? No one can tell 'this Kagome' what she can and cannot do and that goes for you too. Why is it that you would want me to stay anyway? You'd think the human hating ice prince would want a disgusting human like me gone." She glared at him for a few seconds. Sesshomaru didn't react, at all. Her glare turned into a confused stare. His eyes looked almost glazed over. He was staring at something.

"Sesshomaru…?" She thought about waving her hand in his face, but decided that could be a bad idea. He might have ended up cutting her hand off or something.

Sesshomaru had stopped paying attention when she poked him. He was aware that she was saying something but was completely captivated by the finger on his chest. Or more so, the nail. It was green, a toxic looking green. It was almost similar to the color of the poison that came from his own fingers. _Surely this is not a natural color for any human's fingernails to be. This girl is truly strange. Everything from her attire to her speech. Why has this Sesshomaru never noticed this before. I suppose this would be caused by lack of caring. Of course it is not as if this Sesshomaru cares now. But, this girl…even her scent is strange. This human is no ordinary human, even for a miko._Sesshomaru finally got out of his thoughts.

"Sesshomaru!" His ears twitched. He looked up to see the girl's confused and slightly concerned expression.

"What was that?" he stared at her. Kagome sighed. Her hand fell back into its place by her side. Realizing what she'd just said to him she was suddenly very thankful that he'd apparently not been paying attention, for the words that she'd just said probably would have normally gotten her killed.

"Never mind…" She said a little nervously. Sesshomaru slightly glared at her knowing her statement was false. She sighed again. "Why is it that you don't want me to leave?" It didn't take him long to come up with an explanation.

"Woman, this Sesshomaru saved you last night. Had I not decided to take you back to my camp, it is very possible that the half-breed may have found you and judging by the situation you were in it didn't seem as though this result would have been desirable. Had this Sesshomaru left you alone and had the mutt never found you, you may have died from some sort of illness, been eaten, killed or even worse by demons in the area. It would have been very difficult for you to run away from said demons, if you didn't die from some sort of illness first that is, with that injured ankle of yours."

"Oh…" Kagome couldn't think of something to say.

"This Sesshomaru believes it is human custom that if one person helps another, the person who received help owes the other a favor in return. So, as you might say, you…owe me one." He quirked an eyebrow. It appeared as though it had taken Kagome a moment to process all of the information.

"Okay… so, how is it that I am supposed to pay you back?" Kagome was a little frightened. She was expecting an answer like "My brother's sword," or "Be my eternal slave," or "Your life," or maybe something painful. Sesshomaru didn't answer. They stood for a few moments in an awkward silence. Then, Sesshomaru suddenly grabbed her hand. He created his youki cloud and took them high in the sky.

A little bit later they landed in a clearing very similar to the one that they were just in. Kagome looked around. She was thoroughly confused. She looked over at Sesshomaru to see if he was going to say something or explain. He said nothing.

"Um…Sesshomaru? Why did we just move?" He ignored her question for a moment. He led her over to the edge of the clearing where there were a couple large rocks for them to sit on.

"Privacy." Kagome was beginning to think that she would remain confused for the rest of her life. She didn't understand any of Sesshomaru's actions. She was also slightly afraid of what they might need "privacy" for.

"Privacy? We weren't alone before?"

"No. Jaken and Rin were there. Did you not notice? They were asleep. It is quite early in the morning. This conversation might have wakened the girl." Kagome looked over toward the sun. It was barely above the horizon. It must have been six o'clock. Kagome frowned. She could have been sleeping right now if only she had gone back to her time instead of running away. She felt eyes on her. She looked over to Sesshomaru. He was staring at her hand, which he was still holding. She took her hand away, a little embarrassed that they had been holding hands for so long.

"This Sesshomaru has some questions that he would like to be answered." He said taking her hand back staring at her fingernails again. "If you answer all of these questions sufficiently I believe that this will suffice for your 'pay back'."

"That's it? You just want me to answer some questions?" She almost sighed in relief. Answering a few questions sounded a lot less painful than what she had in mind. "Alright, shoot." Sesshomaru raised a brow. "Oh, um. I mean go ahead and ask." Sesshomaru nodded.

"Let us start with this." He raised her hand in his and brought it close to his face. "What is the meaning of this? Is this some sort of demon marking? How is it that you would acquire a demon marking though you are human?" Kagome resisted the urge to laugh.

"Demon markings? You mean my fingernails? It's just nail polish. You know, to make your nails pretty."_You could borrow some if you want!_She laughed internally at her thoughts.

"Nail polish…This Sesshomaru believes he has seen it on women before, but never in such a striking color. It really is quite distracting." He said still completely captivated by her nails. Kagome laughed nervously.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now, would you mind letting go of my hand?" He completely ignored her and continued to inspect her hand. She sighed "Um…okay. Do you have any other questions for me?"

"Yes," he finally gave her hand back "Your clothes, they're very strange and appear to be indecent. Why is it that you wear such strange clothing, and where did they come from?"

"Hey! My clothes aren't indecent. For your information mister, most girls my age wear these clothes. In fact, most of us have to, it's a uniform."

"In other words, most women from where you come from dress indecently. Do you live in a whore house?"

"Yes. I mean no! Where I come from, it isn't indecent. It's perfectly decent. You think this is indecent, you haven't seen the half of it. I do _not_ live in a whore house. You ought to meet some real prostitutes where I come from."

"This Sesshomaru has met prostitutes, and quite frankly, they were wearing much more clothing than you are right now." Sesshomaru smirked. Kagome blushed. She didn't even want to think about where, how and why he'd met those prostitutes.

"Well, it's a lot worse where I'm from." Kagome tried to brush his comment aside.

"Where _do_ you come from?" Kagome thought for a moment. She bit her lip trying to come up with a believable explanation. Seeing that there wouldn't be one, she decided to tell the truth.

"The future."

"Miko, This Sesshomaru believes that he said that sufficient answers would repay the favor, not fictitious ones." The inu leered.

"It's true! I swear!" Kagome raised her hand and crossed her heart to show she meant it, even though Sesshomaru had no idea what she was doing. He ignored it and went on.

"Prove it." He said with a look of mild disbelief.

"I don't think I can do that. You see, Inuyasha is the only one that can come to my time." Kagome looked away playing with the hem of her sleeve.

"This Sesshomaru is sure that anything that the half-breed can do, he can do as well." He said standing up. "How is it that you get to the future?" he said going along as if he believed her.

"Well, it's on the other side of a well in Inuyasha's forest." She kept fidgeting not being entirely sure that it was the best idea to tell Sesshomaru about the future. If Sesshomaru could actually get to the future… She didn't even want to think about the destruction that could take place.

"A well, is it? This sounds interesting. Alright, we're going." He grabbed her hand and before she knew it they were the air again.

"W-what! Go where?" She screeched when he picked up speed.

"The well of course."

"T-the well? But I-. You-. The well is-. You might not even be able to-. This isn't part of the deal! W-we can't! I mean-."

"Woman! Cease your incessant jabbering. You are going to show me that you're from the future rather you agree to it or not." Kagome opened her mouth to object but before she could say anything, as if he already knew what she was about to say... "This is included in the 'payback'." Kagome became silent. There was no fighting it. If Sesshomaru wanted something, he was going to get it and nothing could stop him. They flew in silence for a few moments. He turned in the opposite direction of where they were previously heading.

_Now where are we going? I thought we were going to the well_. _Maybe he had a change of heart._Kagome almost laughed at her inner sarcasm.

"No, This Sesshomaru merely doesn't trust the imp with Rin for such a long period of time. I have to make sure that they relocate in my absence so no harm comes to the girl."

_God, he must be able to read thoughts or something. That's kind of scary. Maybe I should start being careful with what I think._Kagome sighed. _He must really care for Rin. I don't blame him though, I wouldn't trust that toady thingy with a pet rock for a day._With Sesshomaru's speed it hadn't taken them much longer to get back to the campsite. Jaken had already caught something for Rin to eat and she was eating breakfast. The two hadn't seen Sesshomaru since he left and they had never seen Kagome before because they were asleep. Rin saw Sesshomaru and Kagome up in the sky before they came down. She got up from her place and ran to Sesshomaru as they landed.

"Lord Sesshomaru, you've returned so soon!" She gave the lord a big hug.

"Yes Rin, this Sesshomaru has returned" He put his hand on her head. She looked over to see the older girl. It had been so long since they had last seen each other, Kagome could barely recognize the girl. Rin looked at the older girl and suddenly a large smile came across her face.

"Lord Sesshomaru, did you bring Rin a mommy?" She said excitedly. She could finally have a family. Kagome blushed a deep shade of red. She was shocked. She looked at Sesshomaru to get him to respond to her, to tell her that she was wrong. As cute as she was, considering who her father must be, she couldn't possibly be-

"No Rin, Kagome and myself have business to attend to. That is all she is here for."

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you, Kagome." Rin bowed a little and looked back to Sesshomaru.

"Rin, Kagome and I are going to be taking care of something very far away. This may take a long time. Due to the fact that I may be absent for such a long time, I am taking you back to the castle."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Jaken," He called the imp.

"Yes my lord?" He scurried over.

"Take down camp. We're going back to the castle in a few minutes."

"Yes my lord, I will have it all taken care of momentarily." He bowed down and went back to the campsite to put their things together.

"Rin will help!" She said with a smile. She ran over to Jaken probably to be more of a distraction than to help. The lord went to look at the miko, her face still red from the implications of her being Rin's mother.

"Is it really so embarrassing to be referred to as a mother." Sesshomaru said noticing her blush. Kagome felt her face, it was hot. She blushed more from knowing that he saw her blushing.

"N-no. Well, yes… I _am_ 16 years old. That's far too early to have a child, especially one that's Rin's age." Sesshomaru's eye brow rose.

"Isn't it around your age when humans normally find a mate and produce offspring?" It seemed impossible but her face got redder.

"No! Of course not! Not in my time. Women usually wait until they're in their twenties or thirties to have kids."

"Ah, again with the differences between times." Silence.

"Rin must really see you as a father…"Sesshomaru looked at her and nodded.

"Rin was an orphan when this Sesshomaru took her in. Her family was slaughtered by thieves." He paused and looked at the girl happily petting Ah-Un. "When I was injured after Inuyasha first used the Wind Scar, she attempted to take care of me. I tried to scare her off in my injured state; I told her that her efforts were wasted. It didn't stop her from doing what she could to help even though in doing so she was being harmed by people in her village."

_I always wondered how they met..._Kagome waited for him to continue. Sesshomaru was watching Rin chase Jaken around. They had finished packing things up.

"Soon after I was healed, Rin died." Kagome gasped.

"Rin died? Then how is she…" Kagome realized. "You used it didn't you?" She said staring at the sword that gives life.

"Hn." He nodded. "This Sesshomaru tested the sword on her. Rin has been following ever since that day. I have found her tolerable thus far. Her presence has become something that this Sesshomaru has become accustom to. The kindness and respect that she has shown me… I feel as though I am in debt to her. I suppose you could say: I owe her one." Kagome just stared at him in wonder. He almost seemed caring.

"_Rin must really see you as a father"_He remembered.

"Could it be that you were embarrassed because with you being a mother figure and myself being a father figure to Rin, it might imply that we were something similar to being mated?" Kagome's eyes went wide. She had considered it for a moment, but she couldn't admit it.

"Of course not! That never even crossed my mind!" She began to blush again.

"So, the thought of you and this Sesshomaru being mated doesn't embarrass you?" He smirked.

"Of course it doesn't! I mean. Yes, it does. I mean" Kagome was confusing herself. Her head was spinning in circles. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed him to be gone so she could avoid that embarrassing moment. When she opened her eyes, he was gone. Everything had already been packed up and everyone was ready to go.

_Why is it that I feel half the conversations I have with Sesshomaru come straight from my imagination?_She sighed and walked over to the group.

"Rin wants to ride with Kagome!" She ran up to Kagome and grabbed her hand. Kagome smiled down at the girl.

"Alright Rin." She couldn't help but smile back at the little girl.

"Rin, I will be taking Kagome. There isn't enough room on Ah-Uh for the three of you to ride." Rin let go of Kagome's hand and looked down.

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru." Kagome bent down to her height.

"It's alright Rin. We'll be able to spend lots of time together when Sesshomaru and I get back." _I don't plan on going back to Inuyasha anytime soon, so I don't see why not as long as it's okay with Sesshomaru… Maybe hanging around with Rin and Sesshomaru won't be so bad._Rin and Jaken got on Ah-Un. Sesshomaru grabbed Kagome's hand and shot into the sky, leading the others to the castle.

~End Chapter 2~


	3. Chapter 3

TheTruthInLies

Sorry for the wait! Enjoy ^_^

**Chapter 4**

"You WHAT!" yelled the infuriated demon slayer.

"I didn't do anything! Kagome was the one who ran away! How am I responsible for anything she does?" Inuyasha sat cross legged against a wall in Kaede's hut. He crossed his arms and looked away from the demon slayer.

"Did you ever consider that it could be possible that the reason she ran away was _because_ of you? God you're such an idiot!" She was fuming. "And you didn't even try to go and get her back! You just watched her run away!" Sango was pacing back and forth in the small hut. Inuyasha looked down, kind of ashamed of himself that he hadn't taken more time to look for her.

"Now Sango calm down, I'm sure that's not true. Everything's going to be alright. It hasn't even been a day. I'm sure that Kagome will be able to hold her own for a little while. For now, let's not concentrate on being angry at Inuyasha. We need to concentrate on finding Kagome." Miroku put a comforting hand on Sango's shoulder. "Now sit and calm down."

"Thank you, monk." She sighed and sat as far from the hanyou as she could. She glared at him from across the room.

"I'm sure she couldn't have gotten that far, although we can't know for sure. I say we start off in nearby areas and branch out." Miroku was also very worried about Kagome, but he needed to be calm for Sango, and he didn't think that Inuyasha would take charge. It worried him to see Sango in such a state.

"Yeah, I suppose that would probably be the best way to go about it. It might even help to split up into pairs. That is, assuming that Inuyasha wants to help." She sent a glare towards Inuyasha. She was still very angry. She had an idea of what must have happened the night before. She felt really bad for Kagome. She loved Inuyasha so much, and he was so insensitive to her feelings. If only Kagome could find someone else. She was sure that there were plenty of men to pick from that we're better for her than Inuyasha.

"He'd better help. I miss Kagome…" said the little kitsune jumping in Inuyasha's head. Inuyasha grabbed the fox demon and threw him across the room. Shippo looked down and mumbled to himself rubbing the forming bump on his head, "If only Kagome was here… She would have sat him ten times for that." But there was no need for that because Sango had hit over the head with Hiraikotsu.

"Ouch woman!" said Inuyasha rubbing his own forming bump.

"You deserved it. Shippo's right. You'd better help out or your gonna have a lot more bumps on that big head of yours."

Of course I'm gonna help. We need Kagome, unless one of you magically develops the ability to sense jewel shards. " Inuyasha glared at the floor.

"Y-you!" Sango was ready to attack again. Miroku held her down. Sango struggled under Miroku's hold. "Let me go! I'm gonna kick his ass!" She started kicking and thrashing. Inuyasha got up and backed against the wall in fear.

"Calm down Sango! It's not worth it. Besides, we need his help to find Kagome. We need his nose and his speed to find her. Our search for Kagome will be slowed down considerably if you kill him." Sango relaxed.

"Fine, but after we find Kagome, I'm kicking his ass." Sango crossed her arms and plopped down on the floor.

"Feh," Inuyasha got up and left the hut.

"Where the hell does he think he's going?" Sango glared at the door.

"It's okay Sango. It's getting pretty late. We should rest tonight so we have enough energy to search for Kagome in the morning." The monk reassured.

"I suppose you're right." Sango leaned against the wall, tired and ready to sleep.

"Everything will be better in the morning" Miroku tried to comfort her. Shippo snuggled next to the warm, fluffy and transformed Kirara and drifted off into sleep.

_I sure hope so…_Nothing else was said the rest of the night.

\/\/\/\/

It took them quite a while to get to Sesshomaru's castle even with his speed. Kagome wasn't sure she could handle the awkward silence. She noticed a lot of the time she'd spent with Sesshomaru so far that day had been filled with awkward silences. Sesshomaru didn't seem to mind the silence at all. It would have been a lot less awkward if he didn't have to hold her the entire way there. Even so, Kagome chose awkward silence over falling from god knows how high they were in the sky. She just wished that it wasn't so painfully _awkward_.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the four finally arrived at the gates of the castle. Kagome stared at the castle in awe. She had never seen such a beautiful castle. It was just like all of the old shiros she'd seen in history books, but so much more beautiful.

The gates were being guarded by two large, muscular looking demons. One was frightfully tall and tan. He had tiger like stripes on his arms and bright orange hair. The other was considerably shorter than the other and a little leaner. He looked much like Sesshomaru without the markings. He had dark purple hair and red eyes. Kagome couldn't tell what kind of demon he was. They looked very intimidating. The group landed in front of the gate.

"Welcome home Lord Sesshomaru." The tiger demon bowed a little. The other one also bowed.

"Hn." The large gates slowly opened for them. They were huge and heavy looking, like they could keep anything out. And they were so tall... She'd been so busy admiring the gate she hadn't noticed that everyone else had already gone inside. Realizing this she looked down blushing. She looked up at the guard with the purple hair. He was smiling sweetly at. Her blush deepened. She bowed and quickly scurried after the others.

"Well, she was cute." said the purple haired demon.

"Until we know our lords intentions with this girl, it would wise to back off for now, Taiki. Besides, she was a dirty human. Did you not see the filth she was covered in?" Taiki frowned.

"Aw, Toma, you're no fun. I only said she was cute. And it's only dirt. Nothing a bath couldn't fix." He said pouting. "How often is it that we have girls around this god forsaken place? I was beginning to think that females didn't exist anymore, save for Rin, and she doesn't even count as a woman." He plopped to the ground and sat with his legs crossed and his arms stretched out holding onto his knees. He looked up at the tiger demon. "Any thoughts?"

"I have no need for women. I have no plans to reproduce and wont for quite some time. Not having women around does not bother me. They can be very bothersome, loud and obnoxious. One could almost call it a blessing." Taiki sighed.

"With that sort of attitude, there will be no women who will wish to reproduce with you anyway."

"Be quiet and pay attention. We are supposed to be guarding our lord's home and now that he's here you cannot lolly-gag as you usually do." Taiki glared at him for a second. Toma never even noticed. Taiki sighed and hopped up from his place on the ground.

"Alright then! Back to work. Besides, I wanna look good and productive if that girl ever comes out to see us." He smiled and stood up tall.

"You do that…" Toma glanced to the side. _Lord, I cannot wait until my shift is over. _He sighed. The guards continued their duties to protect the people inside.

\/\/\/\/

"Let's go Kagome!" Rin said as Sesshomaru led them through a maze of hallways. Kagome was very surprised. Despite the outer appearance of the castle, which was very much Japanese, the inside looked very western. She entire inside was covered in marble and granite. The ceilings were high and she could hear their footsteps ringing through the hall she was in the very back of the group staring in wonder at everything. Rin got tired of Kagome's slow speed and drug her up towards where Sesshomaru was.

Sesshomaru had led them to a large room with a western style table and chairs. The table was impossibly long and there was a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

_I wonder who designed this castle; it must have been someone who's quite familiar with the western world… I had no idea that anyone from around here would have been to the west. Although, I suppose I had no idea that there were demons in the past before I came here. Even so, this place is amazing. It's so beautiful. _Kagome was so busy admiring the room she hadn't noticed Sesshomaru speaking to her.

"Women, did you hear this Sesshomaru?" Kagome was brought back into reality.

"Hm?" She said coming back to her senses. She looked around and didn't see anyone there.

"It would do you well to pay attention when this Sesshomaru is talking to you." Kagome jumped. He was standing a mere foot beside her. She hadn't noticed that he was standing so close to her. Rin wasn't there. Kagome figured that she must have run off somewhere in the castle to bother Jaken. She would have known what she was really doing if only she had been paying attention. Kagome looked away.

"I-I'm sorry. I was just admiring the room. Your home is very beautiful." Sesshomaru ignored her comment.

"We will be leaving in the morning. Rin is choosing and preparing your room. She will be back in a moment to take you there. Feel free to bathe in in-door hot-springs in whichever wing you stay in. You smell like the half-breed. Not to mention you still have mud all over you." She looked down at her clothes and wrinkled her nose in disgust. He was right. Her clothes were a mess. She'd almost forgotten her fall the night before. She was almost insulted when he'd said something about her scent, but after thinking about it for a moment; she realized that if she was a demon she probably wouldn't want to have to smell Inuyasha's scent either. It's not like it was her that stunk, at least, mostly.

"I suppose you're right. I will, thank you." She nodded toward him. Sesshomaru nodded back.

"I will be in my study if in the slightest chance you'll need this Sesshomaru's presence." With that, he left her to wait in the dining room. Alone. She had a little time to herself. This was a luxury that she hadn't had in the longest time. She always had to hang around the group. She couldn't even be alone when she was running away. Inuyasha had to chase after her. She decided to enjoy her alone time while she could. She sat down in one of the chairs. It was really comfortable for a dining chair. She started to twiddle her thumbs and hum. It seemed as though ten minutes had come and gone before was already bored.

"I suppose that being alone isn't as great as I thought it would be." She felt like she was in a waiting room. Seeing that she had nothing else to do, she rested an arm on the table and laid her head on her arm like a pillow. It wasn't long before she'd begun to doze off. Red eyes watched the girl as she slept. A purple aura almost materialized behind the girl, but blew away like a mist as the door to the room opened. Rin walked in to find Kagome sleeping.

"Kagome, wake up! Rin has picked out a room for you! Wake up!" Rin grabbed the sleeve and tugged on it. Kagome gasped and shot up.

"I'm up, I'm up! I'll make breakfast in a minute, Inuyasha." She said drowsily and a little angry rubbing her eyes. She looked over to the younger girl. "Oh Rin, it's you. Sorry, what is it?"

"Your room is ready! Come on, let's go!" Rin said excitedly.

"Oh right, the room." Kagome was still a little dazed from her nap.

"Rin thinks that you'll really like this room." Kagome stood up and as soon as she did Rin grabbed onto her sleeve again and dragged her down the maze of marble hallways again. Through a few large doors, up a flight of stairs and down a hallway and they were there. Kagome was nearly out of breath when they got to the room. She looked up at the door. She hadn't even entered the room and she was already amazed.

The room had a double door entrance. The doors were huge and looked extremely heavy. They were cherry colored wood with intricate designs all over the fronts. In the middle of the two doors was a large crescent moon very similar to the one on Sesshomaru's forehead. Surrounding the moon was a series of hexagons. Cherry blossoms accented the doors in a beautiful breezy pattern. The most awe inspiring part of the door was the very center. Inside the crescent moon there was a large dog that looked very similar to Sesshomaru in his true form. It looked both powerful and beautiful at the same time. Before Kagome could admire the door any longer Rin easily opened the heavy looking door.

Without a doubt, the room was beautiful. It was huge. When they walked in, Kagome could feel a breeze coming toward her. Right in front of her she saw the largest bed she'd ever seen in person and behind the bed was a gorgeous balcony. On the left wall there was an open wardrobe full of a variety of colorful kimonos. There was a small door past the wardrobe that seemed to be the facilities. And by that door (for obvious reasons), as well as all around the room, there were beautiful flowers. Lotus flowers, azaleas, hydrangeas were all throughout the room placed in what looked like hand crafted colorful vases.

_Thank god for indoor plumbing_ Kagome thought. _This room is perfect._ Kagome turned to Rin and smiled. "You were right, I love it."

"Rin is happy that you like it. Rin thought that it would suit you. If you need anything, Rin's room is across the hall and Sess is next-door." She turned to leave. Kagome almost laughed at the "Sess" but then quickly realized…

"N-next door?"

"Oh! And that door," Rin pointed toward a door was close to the entrance, "goes to Sess's room. Rin is going to bed now. Goodnight Kagome." She smiled and quickly left the room closing the door behind her leaving no room for objections. Kagome gave up.

_What's the point, it's only going to be for one night. It's not like he'd come over here anyway. The door might as well be cemented into the wall, it wouldn't change anything. _She plopped onto the soft bed in the middle of the room. _I do have to say though, Rin made a good choice. This room is amazing even if the neighbors could be potentially unpleasant._

Kagome looked down at herself. She was filthy.

_I probably stink too. _She sighed. _Sesshomaru did say that there would be a hot spring in the wing. Now would probably be a good opportunity to take a nice bath._ She peeked out her door and looked left and right. At the very end of the hallway there was a short red curtain. She assumed that was the hot spring. She went past the red curtain to see a humongous hot spring. It looked like the castle was built around it. It was absolutely beautiful, just like everything else in the castle. She enjoyed a nice long bath. When she got out of the hot spring there was a short, light yukata and a teacup full of cool milk. She looked around kind of embarrassed. Someone had been in there.

_I guess it's alright. They must have just dropped this off for me and left. It…it must have been Rin. _She pushed her thoughts aside and put the yukata on. As she walked to her room she tilted her head back and took a big gulp getting rid of most of the cold milk.

"Aah," She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, "refreshing." It was then that she ran into something in front of her. She quickly backed up a few feet and bowed.

"I am so sorry. I-,"

"The smell is a definite improvement. Rin has informed this Sesshomaru that you would be staying in the room next door." Kagome shot up and her eyes widened. "This Sesshomaru sees you have taken advantage of the hot spring and found the clothes and milk that he brought in for you." _She no longer smells like the half-breed. I can now clearly smell the wildflower.._. A thousand thoughts came streaming through her mind. _I just ran into Sesshomaru. He was the one that put those things in the hot spring. Did he see me? He wouldn't look. There would be nothing for him to look at. He chose these clothes? They're kind of short, almost too short. They're his! I just wiped my mouth on his yukata! How embarrassing. _Kagome wasn't sure if she was more embarrassed that he'd been in the same room she was bathing in, that she'd bumped into him or that she'd just wiped her milk mustache on something that belonged to Sesshomaru right in front of him.

Sesshomaru was just staring at her. She'd been standing there for a few moments motionless. Her eyes almost looked like they were glazed over in shock. He took advantage of the moment to examine her. He looked to her chocolate brown eyes, her pink lips, down to her soft jaw line, down to her neck and-. He quickly looked away and cleared his throat.

"Miko, how long do you plan on staring off into space."

"Oh! Um…sorry. Thank you for, you know, the milk and…stuff…" _Smooth_.

"Hn." He nodded. He took the cup from her hand and looked into it. He brought it too his lips and elegantly sipped what was left of it. "This Sesshomaru will take this. Goodnight Kagome." With that he walked into his room leaving Kagome with her mouth gaping. She quickly stepped into her room and closed the door behind her. She brought her hand to her lips.

"I-i-indirect…k-kiss" her eye twitched. _No! No. He was…thirsty and he wanted …some milk. I was pretty much finished with it. He wouldn't even think of something like an indirect kiss. I'm sure it was nothing._ Kagome sighed. She was overreacting. She plopped down on the large bed and curled up in the silky soft linens and sighed. _So… exhausted. _The flowery scent of the room, the softness of the linens on her bed and the light breeze of the cool air coming from the balcony calmed her. It wasn't long until Kagome drifted off into dream land…

End Chapter ~

3

\/\/\/\/

This was originally part of one big chapter. Almost 6000 words. I figured that I'd post this first half so there wouldn't have to be as much waiting ..._. This also means that I'm almost already done with the next chapter! Wooot! I hope to post the next chapter before Friday because That's the day I leave for camp. Whiiiich will be a week and a half without internet or technology. So~~ anyway. Hope you enjoyed ^_^


	4. Chapter 4

TheTruthInLies

**Chapter 4**

_Kagome threw her backpack over the edge of the well. She climbed up and swung her legs over the side of it. She was back in the Feudal Era again. She looked up at the night sky sitting on the edge of the well._

Amazing_. She thought. She could see the stars so clearly in this time. It was one of the many things that she loved about being able to spend most of her time in the past. She would have never been able to see the sky as clearly she did if she'd never gone back in time. The bright lights and smog of Tokyo made it nearly impossible where as the air of feudal Japan lacked the pollution that she used to be familiar with. She breathed in the crisp night air. _

_She noticed that Inuyasha wasn't there like he usually was. He was always so impatient when it came to her going back to her own time. She was surprised that he hadn't come to the future himself to drag her back even though she was back early. Inuyasha always liked cutting her short by at least three days. She really wasn't supposed to go back until the morning, but she figured that it would be a nice surprise for everyone if she'd arrived early. Even if she was early, Inuyasha usually waited for her long before she was supposed to come until he let his lack of patience take over._

Well, I suppose it is kind of late, he could be sleeping._ She shrugged and decided that she was in no hurry to get back. The night was so beautiful; she decided to walk around for a little bit. She walked for about five minutes in the opposite direction of the village. She came upon a clearing and stopped. The sky had started to get a little cloudy. Her mind came back down to earth. What she saw before her tore her heart apart. Her love and her past self entangled in a loving embrace, whispering things to each other sweetly. Kikyo looked up from Inuyasha's shoulder and smirked at the girl. The look in her eyes told it all._

_"He's mine," She mouthed. Kagome's gasped and clenched her hand on her chest trying to catch her breath. Inuyasha's ears twitched. He let go of Kikyo and turned around. He glared at Kagome. It was a look that said, 'How dare you interrupt us?' His eyes widened in realization when his mind eventually processed who it was. Kagome said nothing tears coming to her chocolaty eyes. He reached out toward her. She turned away from them and the village and ran as fast as she could away from everything. Inuyasha took a step toward the direction Kagome was running, but Kikyo pulled him back and shook her head. Inuyasha tore himself away from her and ran after Kagome anyway. Kikyo stepped back in angry defeat and called upon her soul collectors to carry her off into the growing darkness of the night. _

_Kagome ran and ran… and ran. She closed her eyes not caring where she was going, as long as it was as far away from Inuyasha as humanly possible. Eventually she couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet, but she continued to run as hard as she could. She felt as if she was being held, an arm being wrapped around her waist. She opened her eyes to see that she was high up in the sky with none other than Sesshomaru. She stopped running, seeing that she wouldn't be going anywhere. She was facing him. She looked up into his golden eyes. There was so much emotion in them. She couldn't identify the emotions that his eyes portrayed; she'd never imagined Sesshomaru with emotion. Kagome watched as his hand rose. Sesshomaru brushed her cheek with the back of his…left hand? Kagome could still feel the other arm wrapped around her._

_"Sesshomaru, when did yo-"He rested his hand against her cheek and lightly pressed his thumb against her lips._

_"Shh…" He lightly brushed his thumb across her lips. He dropped his hand and wrapped his new left arm around her, resting his hand on her upper back his other hand lightly pressing against the small of her back. He lowered his head to the crook of her neck and nuzzled it. He began to make a deep satisfied growling sound that resonated from deep in his chest. She could feel it vibrating. She then saw his shoulders jerk up and down, almost in silent laughter. She was a bit confused. Sesshomaru, laughing? Then the laugh became slightly audible. The laugh didn't match him at all. She looked down at him. She no longer saw the silky white hair that was Sesshomaru's. She saw gray hair, getting darker and darker. It was no longer straight; it began to wave and shortened until the hair turned completely black. _

_"Ku ku ku," he raised his head. Red eyes looked directly into her brown ones. She felt his claws digging into her back. She felt her blood dripping down staining her uniform. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. They were still very high up in the sky. He held her far away from his form. She was dangling thousands of feet in the air. He was enjoying the look of terror on her face. She could see it in his eyes. Before she had the chance to scream, he dropped her. _

_Kagome was so shocked she couldn't force a sound to come out of her mouth. All she could do was close her eyes and fall. She fell for what felt like an eternity until she opened her eyes. _

/\/\/\/\

Kagome's eyes snapped open. She was sweating and her heart was still beating fast. She sat up and looked around. She wasn't falling anymore, she was on something soft. Feeling the bed below her she sighed in relief. It was all just a dream. She put her head in her hands and inhaled as much air as she could and let it all out slowly. Tears started coming out of her eyes. She was so scared; she thought she was going to die. She sat there for a few moments trying to calm down, telling herself that it was just a dream and that she had nothing to worry about.

She got up out of her bed; there was no way she could sleep now. She walked out to the balcony to look up at the night sky. It was more beautiful than she remembered in her dream, the pleasant beginning of her dream. It really was a good dream until it all went to hell when Naraku decided to invade it. There was a conveniently placed bench at the end of the balcony. She sat down. The view below was absolutely breath taking. There was an extraordinary view of a flower garden just below the balcony. She could see all the flowers that had been placed in her room and so many more. Everything about Sesshomaru's home was spectacular. She would have never guessed that someone that looked as cruel as Sesshomaru would live in such a wonderful place. When she first met him she would have still imagined that he would still live in a place like a castle, but it would be an old, dark, gloomy castle that any villain would have. She would have never imagined that the supposed bad guy would have such a light hearted place to live. She stood up and leaned over the granite rail of the balcony.

"Miko, it is unwise to lean so far over the rail."

Kagome 'Eep!'ed, jumped back from the rail, stumbled and fell on her butt. She hissed in pain. She looked over to the owner of the voice and glared. Seeing that it was Sesshomaru, she quickly looked away. He was on a separate balcony, very similar to hers, which came from his room. He jumped to her balcony and stood over the girl. He held out his lone hand. Her thoughts reverted to the dream she just had.

_In my dream, Sesshomaru had two arms…I feel partially responsible for the loss of his arm … if only I could…_She reached out to him and took his hand. The second their skin touched, their hands were surrounded in a light blue glow. They both tried to let go, to pull apart, but their hands wouldn't move. The glow traveled up their arms and traveled and throughout the rest of their bodies in synch. The glow finally came to Kagome's left arm. Though Sesshomaru didn't have a left arm, the light continued spread to where his arm would have been. Suddenly Sesshomaru's left sleeve was in shreds. Bone, muscle tissue, veins and skin were growing out from the stub that was left of his severed arm. Within seconds, Sesshomaru's arm had completely grown back. The blue glow slowly dissipated from the both of them.

Sesshomaru's eyes were wider than they probably ever were in his life. He flexed his arm and brought his hand to his face. He opened and closed his hand. It couldn't possibly be that this girl actually gave him his arm back. He turned his attention back to the girl and helped her up off the ground. Kagome stared at his arm for a second.

"So, um…your arms back" Kagome wanted to slap herself. _That's the best I can think of? _

"It appears so." He turned around to look at the sky. Kagome turned around to go back into her room to escape the awkward silence. She was almost there but- "Wait," Kagome stopped and turned back around stiffly. Their eyes met. Sesshomaru had a very…emotional look on his face. He approached her slowly. Kagome stood there confused about what just happened, about the look on Sesshomaru's face and why Sesshomaru kept getting closer and closer.

Sesshomaru wrapped an arm around her waist, his new fingers entangled in her hair. He pressed his forehead to hers. "Thank you." He whispered before he-

"KAGOME WAKE UP!" Kagome's eyes snapped open. Rin was jumping on her bed "Breakfast is going to be ready in a half an hour. Kagome should eat breakfast with Rin!" Kagome rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes.

_It was a dream. All of it… _Kagome put her hands on her face and sighed. _There has to be something wrong with my mind._ Kagome willed herself to get up. She noted that a kimono had been laid out on her bed. She looked around; Rin was already gone. She looked back to the kimono. It was beautiful. The pattern was very similar to Sesshomaru's. The shoulder and the ends of the sleeves we're a nice light pink with a lovely floral pattern at the edges. The obi was a royal purple that faded at the end to the pink of the sleeves and the shoulder.

It took her a long time to put it on. She wasn't used to wearing such formal clothing. She fumbled with the ties of the obi until she thought the bow looked satisfactory, which was pretty much until she got too frustrated to try again. She saw there wasn't a mirror to be found in her room, even in the bathroom. She looked down at herself. She thought she looked okay. She didn't have any makeup to put on. Thinking of this reminded her.

_Craaaaap. I left my bag by the well. I wonder if Inuyasha found it. Thank god my period ended just before I came back. It's not like anyone around here is going to care. _She sighed. She'd just have to go without it for a while.

Not wanting to keep Rin waiting any longer, she went to leave trusting that she looked good enough. She was about to open the door to her room when she heard a knock. She opened the door to find Jaken.

"Lord Sesshomaru has sent me to guide you to the dining room." With that he left, expecting her to fallow. It took her a moment. She supposed that was smart; there was no way that she would have been able to find her way back to the dining room on her own. Instead of being mesmerized by her surroundings, Kagome made an effort to memorize them. It helped that the pace was a lot slower than when she was with Rin. Also, Jaken's short little legs made him a lot slower than Rin.

By the time they got to the dining room, the others were already eating. Rin smiled and waved. It seemed as though Sesshomaru hadn't even noticed that she was there yet. He was just staring at his plate of nothing. He probably sat there for the formality of it. Kagome highly doubted that he ate human food. She thought back to her dreams and looked to where his arm used to be. She wished that her dream could have been reality, at least the part where she gave his arm back. She still felt partially responsible.

She looked around awkwardly and decided to take a seat across from Rin and to the right of Sesshomaru who was at the end. As soon as she sat down, Rin giggled, Jaken gasped and Sesshomaru looked up from his plate to stare at her. Realizing that all eyes were on her, all she could do was sit and be confused. Jaken looked like he was going to have a conniption.

"Human! Do you not reali-,"

"Silence Jaken, it is of no concern to this Sesshomaru." He interrupted him continuing to stare at Kagome without any sort of expression.

"But my lord-,"

"This Sesshomaru believes he was quite clear. You were told to be silent, Jaken." Kagome looked to Rin, who was still giggling, hoping for some kind of explanation. Then she looked to Sesshomaru with a questioning glance. Sesshomaru chose to ignore her look and went back to staring at his plate. Rin stopped giggling and decided to explain.

"Kagome is sitting in an important seat." She started to play with the fish on her plate. "A very important seat." Sesshomaru looked to Rin at his left, then Kagome at his right.

"Okay…"She decided to just ignore whatever the confusion was eat her breakfast. She was kind of poking at her fish. She was playing with her chopsticks to her left as she drank her tea. An evil idea popped into Sesshomaru's head. He could tell that she still didn't understand the significance of the seat, so he decided to help her out. He put his hand over hers stopping her from playing with her chopsticks.

"This Sesshomaru was not aware… that you felt this way, Kagome." Sesshomaru smirked and stared at her their hands.

"Felt this-."She looked completely horrified. She stood up in her seat and looked down, her bangs shadowing her eyes. Her chair flung back and she banged her fists on the table so she was bowing. "Thank you for the meal…" She went to leave the room. She put her hand on the door and paused. "I'll be ready to leave whenever you are." She pushed through the door and left the room. She quickly walked toward wherever she thought might take her to her room. She went every which way. By some miracle she managed to get to the hall way her room was in. She went in her room and leaned back against the door. She slid down and rested her face in her hands. Her face was red hot. She almost couldn't handle the embarrassment once she had realized…

Sesshomaru also got up from his place soon after Kagome had left the room.

"Some things are better left unsaid, Jaken. This Sesshomaru would have liked to have gone through breakfast without any sort of commotion. We are leaving. As punishment, you are to be sure to entertain Rin every day, Jaken. Enjoy yourself." Sesshomaru went to the door.

"Bu-but Rin was th-." Jaken gave up and bowed. "Yes Lord Sesshomaru."

"Goodbye Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin waved. Sesshomaru nodded toward her.

"Hn." He left for Kagome's room.

She didn't even have the chance to think about her embarrassment. Before she knew it she'd fallen on her back with an 'oomph'. Her hands fell away from her face and she looked up to see an upside down Sesshomaru staring down at her.

"This Sesshomaru is ready to leave." He reached his hand down to her, again reminding her of her dream. She was almost scared to take it. She hesitated but eventually lifted her hand to accept his. Sesshomaru grabbed it and pulled her up quickly. "We are leaving now." Nothing had happened to his arm like it had in her dream. In a flash took her all the way to the front gate. He stopped and immediately turned back around and left her at the gate with Taiki and Toma.

"Wait, where-?"

"Swords." He took off toward the castle. Kagome reached out after him.

"Bu-eh-nyeh…oh." She let her hand drop to her side, closed her eyes and sighed in defeat.

"Now really, you didn't expect him to go without them did you?" Kagome jumped. She looked to where the voice came from. It was the purple haired demon from when they'd first come to the castle. He walked over to her and took her hand. He bowed a bit. "What a pleasure it is to have a lady as beautiful as yourself staying at our lord's humble abode." Kagome had to keep herself from pulling her hand away. She put on a smile and laughed politely to sort of humor him. His red eyes stared up at Kagome in a way that made her squirm.

"Um…Kagome…" She attempted to avoid his gaze. Taiki gave a crooked smile ignoring her state of discomfort.

"_Very,_" he paused raising her hand toward his lips. She could feel the heat of his breath on her knuckles. "nice to meet you," He quickly let go of her hand, stepped back and bowed politely. "Lady Kagome." Kagome looked sort of confused.

_Such a change in attitude. I wonder why-_

"Have a nice trip Lord Sesshomaru." Said the tiger demon bowing to his lord. Taiki also bowed.

"Yes, have a lovely time Lord Sesshomaru." Sesshomaru glared at Taiki. He'd seen what he was doing. He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much, but it did. And that was a good enough reason to make sure that Taiki knew that he needed to back off. Taiki returned his glare with a challenging look. Toma put his face in his palm and sighed in exhaustion. Kagome stood in the middle of the three men looking back and forth between the two, totally unaware of the silent exchange. Kagome stepped toward Sesshomaru

"Um…Sesshomaru shouldn't we get-." Sesshomaru grabbed her hand and they were off. They were out of sight within seconds. He hadn't even taken the time to use his cloud. He figured that jumping would get them away from there much faster.

"You must have some sort of death wish." Toma sighed.

"I couldn't help it. She smelled great, she was _clean,_ and that kimono…You cannot tell me that you didn't find her attractive."

"Rather I found her attractive or not is beside the point. Lord Sesshomaru made it quite clear that she is not one that you will be allowed to fool around with. If you care for your job, your home or more importantly your _life_, you'll back off."

"Fine whatever. But if she ever ends up coming to me, there's nothing that puppy can do to stop me." He pouted. Toma began to chortle. Taiki almost fell over. Toma never laughed. "W-what's so funny!" Toma began to full on laugh.

"As if_ that_ would ever happen." Taiki's face became flustered.

"Shut up!" He punched him in the arm. "At least I'd have a better chance than you would!"

"Oh I'm suure." The sarcasm was perfectly evident in Toma's voice. Toma was clearly not acting normally. Taiki squinted.

"I don't like this side of you. You're a real asshole when you're not all…serious."

"When have I ever been not serious?" His attitude completely changed. He was no longer laughing and had a completely serious expression on his face, as he usually would have. Taiki's eye began to twitch. He turned away and started to mutter to himself.

"How the hell did I ever end up getting stuck standing guard with you?"

"Well, the one standing guard with me before you died and-."

"It was a _rhetorical_ question Toma." Taiki sighed and leaned against the wall. "I wonder where they're going."

"That really isn't any of our business."

"You really are back to normal aren't you?" He looked over to the Tiger demon.

"Let's get back to work…"

"Yeah, whatever. Stand and look intimidating. What fun." _Sesshomaru thinks he's so great. I'm tired of being ordered around by that dog. But soon, I won't have to deal with the pup. The time of the rule of the dragons will come again. And that girl…Kagome. She will be my queen._

/\/\/\/\

It had only been a few minutes since they'd jumped away from the castle. They had only landed once for Sesshomaru to kick off and jump again. Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru and marveled at his strength. He was certainly stronger than Inuyasha and much more beautiful, in a manly sense of the word of course. Sesshomaru truly was perfect in most ways. He needed very much to work on his social interactions.

Without the youki cloud Sesshomaru was forced to hold her bridal style, a situation that most girls dreamed about. Under the current circumstances Kagome felt nothing but pure awkwardness. Sesshomaru, on the other hand, almost seemed to have completely forgotten her existence. Nearly ten minutes had passed and neither of them had said a word. The experience wasn't nearly as magical as she'd imagined it would be. Sesshomaru's lack of emotions and aloofness made the experience much less magical.

_Maybe if he would talk once in a while._

"Miko."

_Ah, he speaks. _"Yeah?" she looked up at him again. He was staring off into the distance, almost avoiding eye-contact.

"It would be best if you were to not converse with the guards." Kagome was a bit confused, again. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with them, especially not the tall one. The encounter before they left was pretty awkward but she didn't see any reason to completely avoid them because of it.

"Okay…but wh-."

"We're here." Sesshomaru interrupted. Sesshomaru didn't feel like explaining himself. He wasn't sure that he could. He was confused about his own feelings. The two of them landed feet away from the well. Sesshomaru set Kagome down gently. He looked down into the darkness of the well.

"This is how you get home?" It was more of a statement than a question. "A place where demon remains have been discarded. What is it that you have to do to go to your time from here?"

"I don't know. I guess you just jump in." She sat on the rim of the well. "You might want to hold on. I'm not sure if it's going to work for you. There's a better chance if there's physical conta-." Sesshomaru vaulted over the side of the well, grabbed Kagome's hand and pulled her down with him.

End Chapter~ 4

/\/\/\/\

-Gasp- Does Sesshomaru make it to the future! I don't know :D I'm gonna have a week to think about it though. And it seems that Taiki has a dark side! Dun dun duuuun. Sorry if there are any mistakes. I stayed up until 4 in the morning so I could get this posted. I won't be able to post chapter 6 until a little while after I get back from camp.

Oh, By the WAY. I want to thank YOU for reading. :D I don't think I would have kept writing without all the wonderful reviews. So…Hugs for all! :D Unless you're not a hugger. I understand. So anyway. Off to camp!


	5. Chapter 5

TheTruthInLies

So, I noticed a bunch of typos and things that didn't really make sense in this chapter… Sooo… I went back and edited it. And while I was at it I beefed it up a bit. Nothing too different just a few added details. It ended up being 400 words longer. Haha. Thank you everyone for reading this far. I'm still working on the 7th chapter. Sorry I'm so slow. =_=. I'll kick things up a notch soon and start updating more often. I promise. Thank you all again sooo much. :D

Enjoy~~

**Chapter 5**

While Sango, Miroku and Shippo were scouting the surrounding area for Kagome, Inuyasha parked himself up in Goshinboku near the well. He couldn't be sure that she hadn't gone home because he couldn't smell her scent around the well. The rain would have washed her scent away even if it had been there to begin with. So he sat and waited to see if she would come back and apologize for running away. One thing was for sure, he sure as hell wasn't going to go get her. He wasn't going to apologize for what he did.

But waiting was so boring. It wasn't getting him anywhere. Everyone was mad at him for letting her get away.

_She wasn't supposed to find me. She never comes back early. She usually takes her sweet time studying for…skew-el. Whatever the hell that really is. For all I know, while she's over in her time she could be messing around with that…Hoko…Hopo, Hoyo, Hosho, Hobo, whatever the hell his name was. _Coming to this realization Inuyasha became filled with anger. He jumped down from the tree. _She'd better not be messing around with that bastard. If that wench thinks she can get away with being with another man, she's got another thing coming. _He went to storm toward the well but froze. He smelled her scent. _She's back. _His heart skipped a beat. He rushed toward the clearing. He caught sight of her, she was sitting on the edge of the well; she must have just gotten back from her time. Inuyasha opened his mouth to whisper her name.

"Ka-," _What is she wearing? _His eyes widened to the size of saucers. _What the hell? Sesshomaru!_ He was standing next to her. Kagome looked like she was about to jump in. He saw Sesshomaru jump over the side. _NO! _He ran over to the well as he watched Sesshomaru grab Kagome to take her down with him. In a flash he was at the well. He wasn't too late. He reached down to grab her hand.

/\/\/\/\

She hadn't expected him to jump right in, let alone drag her down with him. Her stomach leapt up to her throat as she felt the sensation of falling. But then she felt something grab her other hand and the falling suddenly stopped. She looked down to Sesshomaru, he wasn't falling anymore either. She looked up to her other hand to see none other than Inuyasha holding onto her wrist.

"Inuyasha, let go of me!" Kagome winced in pain. Sesshomaru was heavy, but if she let go, Inuyasha could just pull her out and take her away somewhere. She felt like she was being torn in half. Sensing her pain, Sesshomaru let go and let himself fall. He kicked off from the bottom of the well and shot back out grabbing Kagome's waist in the process. She flailed about but eventually managed to wrap her free arm around his neck to secure herself. Inuyasha flew up into the air with them, still holding onto Kagome. Kagome winced in pain having to support Inuyasha's weight. Sesshomaru generated his youki whip and whipped Inuyasha's wrist, causing him to let go. He landed on the ground hissing and gripping burnt wrist. Sesshomaru landed gracefully on the ground several yards away from Inuyasha. Kagome let go and touched her feet to the ground.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha began to approach the two. Sesshomaru stepped in front of Kagome. "Bastard! What do you think you're doing? Get away from her." He growled.

"This girl owes me for saving her life. I will not be giving her up to the likes of you, half-breed."

Sesshomaru bared his fangs and got into a fighting stance. Inuyasha followed suit. The two brothers began to snarl at each other. Kagome bit her lip and stared at Sesshomaru's back.

_Oh no, I don't want a fight._ _What do I do? _She looked back and forth between the two. She put her hand on Sesshomaru's shoulder. His growling stopped immediately. "It's okay." She stepped out in front of him. Sesshomaru stood up tall revoking his intentions to fight Inuyasha, at the moment anyway. Inuyasha slowly relaxed as Kagome began to walk up to him. She stopped only a foot away from him. She gently put a hand on his chest. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her in what he believed would have been a comforting embrace.

Sesshomaru growled. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't like the filthy half-breed touching her. Kagome stood still for a moment, but eventually she slowly put her hand on his upper back, keeping her other hand on his chest.

"Kagome, I just know you'll come back with us. You don't wanna hang around with Sesshomaru. He's a killer. He would eat you alive without hesitating. You know that." He put his head on her shoulder. "So please, come with me." Sesshomaru's eye almost visibly twitched.

"No…" she whispered. Her eyes began to water.

"What?" His head snapped up, eyes widened with surprise.

"No." She said a little louder.

"What do you mean no?" He put his hands on her shoulders. The arm on his back dropped to Kagome's side but her hand on his chest stayed in its place. "You have to come back with us. Kagome, I love you." He tilted her chin up and began to close in on her lips. Sesshomaru's eyes flashed red and his growling became louder. His claws began to glow a threatening yellow. He was ready to strike.

"Shut up!" She pushed away from him. Inuyasha felt a pressure on his neck and a sudden snap. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Purple beads and white fangs began to fly every which way. They seemed to fly slowly in front of his face and then to the ground. The little beads bounced on the soft ground and rolled at his feet. Inuyasha reached up to his neck. He was almost afraid to look. It was gone. The necklace was gone. His eyes went wide. He was free.

"Kagome, I-" A deep aura began to emanate from Sesshomaru's person, whipping around in his anger and confusion as if it was alive and about to erupt in a dangerous typhoon. The half-breed wouldn't quit. He stepped forward. He would have to-

"I said Shut UP!" Sesshomaru stopped in his tracks. He was ready to kill Inuyasha. He wasn't sure why. He didn't understand. It wasn't as though it would be a bad thing if he had ended up killing Inuyasha. It was as if some sort of animal instinct had come over him. Pushing that aside Sesshomaru looked at the remains of the necklace that Inuyasha had been wearing in her hand and on the ground. He could smell the salty scent of the tears threatening to spill from Kagome's sullen eyes. He supposed killing wouldn't be the best in this situation anyway. There was no need to further upset the miko.

"Whatever relationship we had, whatever you considered it to be is over. All I ever did was love you and all you ever did was ignore it. You don't love me Inuyasha. I'm tired of you lying. As of now, I don't love you anymore. I never want to see your face again. So just leave me alone." She put her head in her hands, the remains of the necklace still laced between her fingers and cried.

"Kagome…" He went to put his hand on her shoulder but she smacked it away.

"Don't touch me. Just go away."

"But Kagome-," He reached out again. This time it was Sesshomaru's hand that stopped him, gripping onto his wrist firmly.

"This Sesshomaru believes she said that she did not wish to be touched." He pulled him away from Kagome.

"Screw you. What do you know?" Inuyasha tried to pull away from Sesshomaru. He couldn't and resorted to snarling at him. It was then that Sesshomaru threw him into a tree, hard. Hard enough to cause Inuyasha to slam his head into the tree and pass out completely. He was knocked out.

"Let's go." Kagome wiped some of the tears from her face and nodded. Sesshomaru put a hand on her back and began to gently guide her toward the well.

"Wait." She turned to where she was standing just a moment before. She held her arms out to her sides, palms facing away from her and brought her hands together near her chest, her index and middle fingers crossed, the index fingers pointing towards the sky and thumbs hidden beneath them, the other four intertwined. She began to chant a small prayer that Kaede taught her. She learned it just in case if for any reason the rosary would have accidentally been broken off or a situation similar to that. The part of the rosary she was holding flew from her hands and hovered in front of her. The other beads and fangs began to glow white. All the other parts of the rosary rose up and joined the parts of the rosary that were still intact, all in their original spots. The rosary began to spin, faster and faster. It suddenly stopped and the glowing light flashed and dissipated. The now fixed rosary gently placed itself around Kagome's hands.

_So this is a sample of the miko's powers. _He stared at the rosary she now had in her hands. Kagome turned back toward Sesshomaru, ready to leave.

"I wanted to make sure…that I had all of the pieces. I didn't want Inuyasha using any part of this rosary to try to come back to my time…Whenever it is that he wakes up, he'll find that he can no longer pass through the well. Our bond is broken." She began to cry again clutching the beads in her hands against her chest. Sesshomaru looked down at his chest. He had the urge to hold her against his chest and to erase her sadness. He put a hand against his armor.

_That would be impossible_. He moved his hair behind his ear and sighed.

"Kagome…we should hurry before he wakes up." He put a hand on her back to guide her toward the well again. She sniffled and nodded. He wrapped his arm around her waist and jumped into the well. The two of them were surrounded by an otherworldly blue glow. Clearly they were going someplace other than the bottom of the well. Sesshomaru could see that. However he wasn't entirely sure of where they would end up.

It wasn't long until they touched the bottom of the well. Sesshomaru was sort of surprised, he was expecting to land somewhere completely different but they did end up in the bottom of the well. However, he did notice that the well had become very dark. He looked up to see what he had expected to be the night sky. To his surprise, there were no stars and not a ray of moonlight to be seen. What he did see was wooden beams. They must have been inside of a building. He jumped out of the well not really know what to expect. As soon as he touched the ground he set Kagome down on the edge of the well. Sesshomaru sat down next to her. She was still wiping tears from her eyes. He took her hand and set it down at her side.

"Kagome, look at this Sesshomaru." She sniffled and looked up at him. "You must forget about the half-breed. This Sesshomaru is not entirely sure of what happened back there, but what you said seemed very serious." She looked down at the rosary in her other hand. "If you truly wish to end your relationship with Inuyasha then you must forget about him. Keeping something like that will only remind you of him and cause you further pain." He held out his hand to her. Kagome squeezed the rosary in her hand and stared at it for a few seconds. She sighed and loosened her grip on it. She dropped the rosary into Sesshomaru's hand.

The moment the beads touched Sesshomaru's skin, they began to glow red. A heavy draft blew through the well house roughly blowing both Kagome and Sesshomaru's hair and clothes around. Kagome ducked and put her hands on her head. The color of the beads themselves transformed into a deep red to match the glow. The beads rose out of Sesshomaru's hand went over his head and around his neck. The wind suddenly stopped and the glow of the beads dimmed. The two sat there not sure of what just happened. Kagome sat up and blinked. She was so shocked she'd completely stopped crying. She looked at the rosary on Sesshomaru's neck and reached out to touch it. She immediately retracted her hand having just had an interesting idea.

"Hey Sesshomaru… try to take that off." As he was told to he took hold of the beads and lifted them over his head with ease. "Strange. Inuyasha couldn't take his off." Sesshomaru looked at her confused but brushed it off. He didn't need to search for an explanation, he knew exactly why he wasn't restrained like Inuyasha had been.

"Inuyasha is weak. It doesn't matter anymore because it appears as though the rosary has chosen this Sesshomaru to be the wearer. It must have changed its abilities accordingly." He placed the rosary back around his neck. "Beside all of this, this Sesshomaru is sure that the future of which you speak must not all be in this small building." He looked over to see a small set of stairs that went up to a rectangle of light that must have been the door out of the building. Kagome stood up and brushed herself off. While she was doing this Sesshomaru made his way fairly quickly to the door. He put his hand on the door to push it open.

"Wait, Sesshomaru you can't" He looked back to her.

"Explain yourself." She tried to go over to him as quickly as she could, but the yukata she was wearing was making it very difficult.

"You won't able to stand the smell. You can't just go out there." Sesshomaru's chest puffed up.

"There is nothing that this Sesshomaru cannot handle." She was almost to him but it was too late. He pushed the door open and went outside. He had only taken a few steps but froze in place. Being concerned, Kagome went out in front of him. She looked up to Sesshomaru's face, his eyes glazed over and devoid of any expression. His eyes fluttered closed and he was still. Kagome looked up at him confused. He wasn't moving anymore. She waved her hand in front of his face.

"Sessho-,"

Before she knew it, she'd been knocked onto the ground. She felt the impact of Sesshomaru's head on her stomach. She felt a shooting pain in her leg. She instinctively brought her hand to her leg where she felt the pain. She had the sensation of touching cold metal before she brought her hand back up to her face. It was covered in blood. She built up the courage to look down and assess the damage.

There was a large amount of blood pooling around a deep gash in her upper right leg. Sesshomaru had landed in a way that a spike on the chest plate of his armor had sliced her upper leg. She brought her hand back to her leg. She tried to apply pressure on the wound to stop some of the rapid bleeding. She winced in pain. It was unbearable. She brought her hand up to her face once more. It had become completely covered in blood again. She looked past her hand and to her surprise Sesshomaru was staring right down at her, or rather, her hand. He took her hand in his and inspected it. He sniffed it. His attention was brought to her gashed leg.

"You're bleeding." He got up off of her. He looked down at his armor, covered in blood. He moved to the bottom of her yukata and tore off a strip of cloth. He went to push up her yukata to expose the gash.

"Sesshomaru, no." She reached toward the strop of cloth and retracted the hand to wince in pain.

"It's fine. There are many more yukatas similar to this at the castle." He went to pull up the yukata up over the wound. He pulled it all the way up above her knee, but-

"Sesshomaru, w-wait" Kagome's face got extremely red. He looked at her and then back down to her legs. Realizing what he was doing, he suddenly froze but managed to keep a cool expression. He wasn't supposed to be affected in this way. He felt an unusual heat on his face. It wasn't a huge difference, but significant enough for Sesshomaru, that he knew exactly what was happening. The alabaster skin of his cheeks was stained the lightest of pinks, barely noticeable. He looked away not wanting to show his embarrassment and quickly pulled the yukata down over her legs.

"This Sesshomaru will… attend to the wound in another manner. Please bear with this for a moment." He then proceeded to take one of his clawed fingers and made a small cut in his hand. Due to the sharpness of his claw, the cut bled a lot. He took some of the blood into his mouth and sloshed it around. He took a claw into his mouth and released a tiny dose of venom. His blood saliva and a bit of venom mixed together to make a sort of salve. Sesshomaru sat still for a moment. Kagome gave him a strange look. She still wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, but neither was he.

He'd never done this before. He'd been told that it would be more effective the less time the salve would have to touch the air before it touched the wound. So it was said that it would be wiser to lick the wound. But given the wounds location, he wasn't sure that he would be able to do that.

To avoid any awkwardness and more loss of blood, he quickly put his thumb into his mouth and gathered the saliva onto it. He quickly used the cloth that he'd torn off of the yukata and wiped the blood. He then took his saliva/blood/venom covered thumb and rubbed as much as he could as quickly as he could onto the gash. Kagome hissed in pain.

"It means that it's working. The pain will go away shortly." He said attempting to reassure her. He was right. Only a moment after she felt the pain it already disappeared. She looked down to her leg. There was nothing there but a little puddle of blood under her leg and a very large red stain on the yukata. Kagome ran a finger over where the gash had been only seconds before.

"That's amazing." She stared in awe at her leg. There was no trace of the gash. No scab no scar.

"It was something that was taught to this Sesshomaru by his mother when this Sesshomaru was very young. This was the first time that this Sesshomaru has attempted it. It worked quite well." He said examining his work himself. Kagome looked down.

"Sesshomaru, I'm so sorry…" She looked away from him. "I got it so dirty." She said referring to the yukata.

"Do not be sorry for something that is this Sesshomaru's fault." He got up on one knee and held his hand out to her. "There are many others like that in the castle and no one to wear them. This Sesshomaru believes that no one will notice if only one is missing. Besides, your well-being is much more important to this Sesshomaru." Kagome sat up. Sesshomaru got up and pulled Kagome up to her feet with him.

"Of course… Who else would show you around?" She smiled sweetly at him as she dusted herself off. She looked toward her house to search for any signs of someone being home.

Her words were like one of her purification arrows, shot directly into the middle of his chest. He slowly brought his hand up to his chest as she was looking away. He didn't understand the feeling that he was getting and why it felt so painful. He wasn't really sure how to respond to her. He would like to tell her that what she said wasn't true, but he wasn't entirely sure for himself rather it was or not. His feelings were mixed up in to a whirlwind of emotions that he'd never experienced before and couldn't even begin to explain. So he said the only thing he could: what he was feeling.

"Your words pain me Kagome." His hand was still on his chest and his voice a similar monotone. Kagome's head snapped around toward him. His voice and face completely contradicted his statement, but his body language and his eyes, those eyes, said everything. Kagome was too confused to deal with all of it so she decided to just avoid an awkward conversation.

"Heheh," she laughed nervously. "If I didn't know any better I'd think that you we're making a joke. Well, let's go to the house. I'm sure you'll be able to breathe in there." She quickly turned back around to go toward the house.

"Hn." Sesshomaru let his hand drop from his chest. Hopefully he could just forget the feelings that he was having. He'd never had them before and he was sure that they could go away as easily as they'd come. He quickly fallowed after the miko very close behind to avoid the awful smells of the miko's world.

Sesshomaru was mildly surprised, though he didn't show it, at how large Kagome's home was. Back in his time, most humans that weren't lords or noblemen lived in small huts in villages. Kagome's home appeared quite large. He almost wondered about her position in her future society. He'd be sure to ask her in the near future. He looked around. He could hear thousands of humans; smell thousands of humans, though he could not see them through the trees that they were surrounded in. It seemed that she lived in the center of a huge village.

Kagome opened the door to her home. Sesshomaru immediately noticed that the air coming from inside the house was much cooler than the warm air that was outside of the structure. He would definitely need to ask Kagome about climate change in structures. Or perhaps there was some sort of ice demon in her house. Though he would have detected said demon by now if it had been there.

"Mom, I'm home!" Kagome shouted throughout the house. Sesshomaru cringed at the sheer volume. Seeing this from the corner of her eye she turned a little and mouthed a "sorry" to him.

"Kagome! Hi. You're home just in time, dinner's ready." Kagome's mother walked out of the kitchen in the middle of pulling her oven mitts off. "Oh, who's this?" She said referring to the demon lord. She went up to inspect him as if his looks would tell her everything that she needed to know. And they did. Kagome told her mother a lot about the past, including Sesshomaru. "You must be Sesshomaru. I've heard so much about you. You look sort of similar to Inuyasha but your features are far more striking and you're much more handsome. Kagome, you were right. Inuyasha's cute, but Sesshomaru is mmf-,"

"Mom!" She said covering her mother's mouth. "Don't you think you should go back to making dinner?" She said laughing nervously.

"But it's already fin-mmmff!"

"Of course it isn't. Sesshomaru and I are here. You'd better go set another two places for us." She started to walk her toward the kitchen leaving Sesshomaru at the door. She then pushed her in to the kitchen. "Call us in when you're ready!" She wiped the imaginary sweat off of her forehead and turned around to Sesshomaru standing directly in front of her staring down at her.

"But this Sesshomaru is…?" He said with a slight smirk and quirking an eyebrow. Kagome's eye twitched.

"Common Sesshomaru, I was sixteen and boy crazy. You know how girls are when…they're…" She looked up at Sesshomaru's blank stare. "Never mind, you probably don't."

"Then this Sesshomaru believes that you will need to elaborate." Kagome scratched the back of her head thinking. She opened her mouth to say something, but the closed it again.

"I'd rather not" She smiled nervously hoping that he'd just drop it. As if saving her from the situation, even though she got her into it, her mother called.

"Dinner's ready you two." She poked her head out of the kitchen. "Kagome, could you run upstairs and tell Sota? I think he's in his room playing some video game." Kagome thanked her lucky stars.

"Sure thing mom. You go on ahead into the kitchen with my mom. I'll be right back." She scurried up the stairs as fast as she could so he couldn't object. Sesshomaru watched her until she disappeared into the upstairs hallway. He assumed that the kitchen was the place where her mother was. Seeing that he had nothing better to do, he decided to go ahead and do what she said. He walked into a kitchen that was quite large. The appliances that were in there were a mystery to him. The materials seemed all familiar to him though they were in strange shapes and forms. Kagome's mother was pulling out something that looked like a large bird, like a large chicken out of a large white box. He was no expert in cooking, but he was sure that it wasn't possible to put something in a box and have it come out cooked. That is, if the box wasn't on fire, which it wasn't. He looked to a counter where there was a small moving painting. It had obscenely dressed woman, even more so than Kagome's usual attire.

_I suppose Kagome was right… Women in this time wear garish clothing._ He walked over to the small painting and watched it move. He thought that it must have been enchanted.

"Oh, hey Sesshomaru," Kagome's mother smiled. "That's my favorite show, America's Next Top Model. American reality shows can be so entertaining." She said brushing something on top of the bird.

"Reality show." _This Sesshomaru can already tell that he has much to learn from this time. _

"Sesshomaru. Come, come. Sit down here at the table." She gestured toward one of the chairs surrounding the table. It was in a small area on the side of the kitchen made for eating. Sesshomaru nodded and took a seat. The table was entirely full of food that he was not familiar with. He wasn't sure that he could eat it, but he supposed that he would to be polite. He wasn't sure why he would want to do that, but something in the back of his mind told him that he should be unusually kind to Kagome's mother purely for the fact that she was Kagome's mother. Just a moment later Kagome came in dragging a little boy by his shirt into the room.

"Why'd you have to shut it off! I was THIS close to leveling up AND I almost had that boss beaten! Do you know how far I'll have to go just to get back to that point! I'm not even hungry." Kagome continued to drag him until he was at a seat around the table.

"Well maybe you should save a little more often. If you hadn't argued so much I wouldn't have had to unplug it." Sota slumped down in his chair and crossed his arms making sure that everyone knew he was upset. Sesshomaru, clearly uninterested in the boy's situation went to look at Kagome. She sat down next to him. Seeing that he was staring at her and not looking away, she blushed a little and averted her eyes. She'd hoped that he forgot about what her mother said earlier. She looked around the table and only saw four places.

"Hey mom, where's grandpa?" Her mother took a seat.

"Jii-chan took a trip to Hawaii with some old friends. He actually left right after you did. It was a surprise really, but he seemed really excited to travel. It's a shame you didn't get to see him before he left." Kagome looked down.

"Yeah…" Her mother looked over to Sesshomaru and smiled.

"So, Sesshomaru-," Sota's head shot up. He'd been secretly playing his PSP under the table. He was so busy with his video-game crisis that he never even noticed Sesshomaru sitting right there. He didn't know much about Sesshomaru, but he knew that he was related to Inuyasha, which was enough information to know that he was awesome.

"Whoa! You're Inuyasha's brother aren't you?"

"Hn."

"That's freakin' awesome. You must be super powerful." He said chewing on a piece of turkey.

"Hn." Sesshomaru passed all of this off as obvious information.

"So anyway," Kagome's mother cut back in. "What brings you here in the future? From what I've heard of you, you never seem to be on good terms with Kagome and Inuyasha. So why is it that you're here with my daughter?" She let her smiley composure slip and let a firm interrogative expression on her face. She'd heard about each encounter with Sesshomaru, most of which involved Sesshomaru attempting to kill Inuyasha or even her daughter. Sesshomaru was not affected by her change in attitude. He was well aware of the things he'd done.

"This Sesshomaru saved Kagome's life." Her mother gasped.

"Is this true Kagome?" She nodded. "What happened?" Sesshomaru's ear twitched. He was sort of interested. He was never told of what exactly happened to her. Kagome set down her silverware and took a deep breath.

"I ran away."

"Ran away? But why?" She wiped some crumbs off of her face with a napkin.

"Inuyasha was with Kikyo again. I guess I just couldn't take it anymore, so I ran. It was raining, it tripped, fell and hurt myself. I ran into Sesshomaru and he took care of me. He took me away from there and from Inuyasha. He let me stay at his castle-,"

"Castle? You have a castle?"

"A few."

"A FEW?" Both Kagome and her mother said simultaneously. He nodded as if this was casual information. They all stared at him for a moment.

"Ahem, anyway. I told him that I was from the future. I guess he didn't believe me so I told him that I would show him. So here we are." That wasn't exactly how it went, but she didn't really want to make it seem that she was obligated to show him.

"Well wasn't that nice. But what does Inuyasha think about having his brother here?"

"Who cares…" Her mother looked sort of surprised. She knew she ran away but she hadn't expected her to act so brutally toward the hanyou. They usually always made up.

"Well, I suppose if he was unhappy with it he could just hop on over and…" Kagome and Sesshomaru exchanged glances and looked down at Sesshomaru's neck. Her mother pointed to the rosary her eyes wide. "That's not-?" Kagome nodded. "So he can't" She nodded again. "Oh." She looked over to Sesshomaru. "And he can."

"I suppose." There was a long awkward silence. Sota seemed completely oblivious to it all because he was still playing his PSP under the table. They ate in silence for a few moments. Sesshomaru stared at his plate. For human food, he supposed that it tasted fairly decent. The others seemed to be enjoying it. Whatever it was that he was given to drink was delicious. He took a sip. It made him feel good. He swirled the red liquid around in his glass and took another sip. He looked over at Kagome enjoying some seasoned rice. She had a grain of rice sitting at the corner of her mouth. It caused him to smile just a little. Noticing that she was being stared at she looked over at Sesshomaru and swallowed her last mouthful of rice. He was smiling warmly at her with a strange look in his eyes.

"What?" She looked at him with a "what are yo looking at?" expression. He brought his hand to her face and wiped a little grain of rice off of her cheek with his thumb. He brought his thumb to his mouth and licked the piece of rice off. Kagome was really surprised. His expression was really strange, and that was the last thing that she'd expected him to do. She looked down.

"Thank you." He was still smiling at her. It was kind of scaring her. Usually when he smiled it was a bad sign.

Kagome's mother was resting her chin in the palm of her hand with her elbow on the table. She sighed in content.

"Ah, to be young again. Sesshomaru reminds me a lot of your father Kagome. He had long beautiful black hair, piercing blue eyes; he was so handsome. He was sweet too. He used to look at me just like that." Kagome looked back to Sesshomaru. He was still smiling a dreamy smile. It was a lighter smile but his eyes were still the same. She figured there must be something in the human food messing with his mind.

"Well, I'm all done." Sota stood up with his plate.

"Oh Sota, would you take your old mother's plate with you?" Kagome broke away from Sesshomaru's gaze.

"Mine too." She held up her plate. She looked at Sesshomaru's empty plate. "Finished?" Sesshomaru nodded without losing his expression still staring at her. She held up his plate too. He sighed and took the all of plates to the sink.

"Thank you dear." Their mother smiled kindly.

"I'm goin' upstairs to finish that game." And he was gone.

"I'll take care of the dishes kids. Kagome, you should find Sesshomaru some clothes. I bet your father's old clothes will fit him just fine until you can get him some that will… fit today's fashion. When you go out, and I am assuming that you _will_ be going out, he'll attract too much attention wearing…well that. Not that he won't be attracting a lot of attention already. I'll leave you some money to go shopping sometime."

"'Kay. Sesshomaru, we. Should…" Sesshomaru started to chuckle. He swirled the liquid in his glass around and took a sip. The liquid was almost gone.

"This is very good. You should try some." She felt something soft tilting her head back. He brought the glass to her lips and poured enough for a sip. Kagome swallowed and coughed violently.

"Is this…MOM did you give Sesshomaru WINE?"

"Well he seemed old enough, why not? I'm sorry, I suppose I should have checked. Sesshomaru dear, how old are you?" Sesshomaru chuckle a little more.

"Old. Heheh. I jest. I'm merely 1800 years old. Although I suppose that is quite old in terms of human age."

_He "jest's"? "I"? _

"See Kagome, he's old enough." She went back to scrubbing a pan.

"Sesshomaru, have you ever had alcohol?" Sesshomaru nodded.

"Mmhm. It's always served at meetings with the other lords about land issues and such. This Sesshomaru has only tried once or twice but. I never really liked the stuff, it was always so bitter. Why is it that you ask?" She blinked.

"Sesshomaru, have you ever been drunk?" He laughed.

"Nooo." Kagome got up out of her chair. She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of his chair. "Where're we goin'?"

"Upstairs." She proceeded to drag him up the stairs.

"Have fun kids and behave! I'm ahem, going out." She said almost suggestively. "Bye."

"Bye mom." Kagome having just gotten Sesshomaru inside of her room closed the door after her. "Oh crap oh crap oh crap. What the hell am I supposed to do with a drunk Sesshomaru?" Sesshomaru removed his swords and took a seat on her bed. He gave her a very serious look.

"Drunk? This Sesshomaru is not drunk."

_Okay, maybe he really isn't drunk._ He took in a deep breath through his nose.

"This room smells wonderful." He sat up and took his still blood stained armor and boa off. He looked down at the bed. The purple flower had fallen out of his armor when he took it off. He held it between his thumb and middle finger and brought it up to his nose. "It smells just like you."

"Sesshomaru, you're drunk." She said her eyes narrowing.

"Is this an issue?" She heard from behind her. She whipped around to see him leaning against her bathroom door.

_Even when mentally impaired he's so fast. This is ridiculous._ Sesshomaru looked into the bathroom. All of the contraptions in there were foreign to him but what really interested him was the door on the other side of the small room. Kagome had a hand rubbing her temple to stop her aching head so she could think of what to do with him. She didn't notice Sesshomaru going through the other door.

"Kagome." She looked around. He was gone again. She looked through the bathroom to see the other door open. Curiosity had compelled him to go to the room on the other side of the bathroom door. She went into the other room and found Sesshomaru staring at an old family photo on a tall dresser.

"That was my dad before he died a long time ago." Kagome was right behind Sesshomaru. He picked up the picture and held it in his hand. He pointed the claw of his thumb toward a little girl in long pigtails with a couple missing teeth smiling brightly in a man's arms.

"That must be you." Kagome nodded. "Cuute." Sesshomaru hiccuped.

_Still drunk huh? _Sesshomaru set the photo down and looked around the room. There was a king sized bed with a couple dressers and a closet. "This was their room before he died." Sesshomaru looked to Kagome, she didn't seem as sad as he would have expected her to be. He figured that she must have been long since finished with her mourning. Kagome walked toward the closet and motioned for Sesshomaru to follow her. She opened the closet door and went inside. It was a large walk-in closet full of her dad's old clothes. Sesshomaru fallowed after her into the large. The closet was more than big enough for the both of them to stand comfortably.

"Well, my mom said that we should use some of dad's old clothes for you to wear for now. So now that we're in here, we might as well just take care of that now."

"Hn." Kagome grabbed a handful of hangers with clothes in a style that he'd never seen before. He wasn't sure that he would be able to figure out how to put any of these foreign articles of clothing on.

"Hm, I couldn't imagine that you'd need anything too dressy. Let's just go for something kind of casual so we can go out later to pick up some other things for you to wear." Sesshomaru wasn't paying attention. He was playing with the rosary around his neck. He noticed how much it smelled like Kagome. It was a very strong scent. The scent became noticeably stronger after he fainted, perhaps to protect him from the ghastly smells of the future. He was glad it didn't smell like the half-breed. She must have purified the necklace somehow and got his scent off of it.

"Sesshomaru, did you hear me?" Sesshomaru broke away from his thoughts

"Hm?"

"Do you think you can put these on?" Kagome held out a pair of khaki pants, some boxers and a black button up shirt. Sesshomaru gave no reaction. Kagome took his silence as a yes. "The zipper," She pointed to the metal on the front of the pants, "goes in front. And the open part of the shirt goes in front too. I'm gonna go change too. I'll be back in a little bit okay?" Sesshomaru nodded. Kagome laid the clothes out on the bed and left to go to her room. She closed the bathroom door behind her and went to get herself something more casual to wear.

End Chapter~ 5

/\/\/\/\/\

Seeing as this chapter is almost 7,000 words long, (oh mah goodness) I suppose I'll end it here and let you guys read this far. Stick around… for… CHAPTER 6 :3


	6. Chapter 6

TheTruthInLies

Chapter 6

Leaving Sesshomaru to take care of himself Kagome rummaged through her drawers for something to wear. Deciding she didn't want to wear anything too flashy or distracting she picked out a long black and white plaid button up shirt with quarter length sleeves and a pair of dark blue boot cut jeans. She took a quick look in the mirror in the bathroom to look for any dirt on her face from falling earlier and ran her fingers through her hair to check for any knots. She would definitely need to wash it properly after being in the feudal era for so long. Seeing that there weren't any knots, she went back into her bedroom to change out of the tarnished and blood stained yukata.

It slightly aggravated her how Sesshomaru acted as if her ruining the yukata was nothing. The thing looked extravagant and probably would have sold for hundreds of thousands of yen. It was likely handmade and probably specially designed for his mother. No, it probably wasn't worth hundreds of thousands of yen, it was priceless. She was sure that underneath the strong, scary and elegant exterior there was a spoiled child who got whatever he wanted. Setting the thought of Sesshomaru aside, she decided to get dressed so a drunken Sesshomaru wouldn't be able to barge in on her.

After dressing she carefully laid the yukata on her desk chair. Even if the clothes she gave to Sesshomaru didn't fit very well she was going to take him out in the later in the afternoon when there would be less people out and about. He would be much less likely to attract attention if it was darker.

She thought for a moment. She wasn't sure what she was going to do about his markings. His hair, size and one armed-ness was sure to attract enough attention in the first place. But after considering it for a moment she thought:

_Well, there are tons of people with strange tattoos. I'm sure that no one would pay too much attention to the markings and pass it off as some strange tattoo. The real issue would probably be his overall Sesshomaru-ness… and attractiveness. (Nope, even Kagome can't deny it) The hard part of the trip is going to be the actual shopping for clothes. It could be hard to find clothes that are long enough for his height. We might have to go to a big and tall store. Well, at least for the pants. I'm sure that we could work with most shirts. I wonder what Sesshomaru would look like in jeans…_ She sat and thought while she waited for Sesshomaru to finish dressing.

Sesshomaru, in his drunken state was having a hard time getting on the clothing Kagome gave him to wear. He managed to get the things on the way that she told him to but his hands weren't stable enough to get any of the fastening mechanisms to come together. He had already poked a small hole near the button of his pants with his claws. He would require Kagome's assistance to finish dressing. So he decided to start over, take everything off and replace his hakama.

Wondering how Sesshomaru was doing she took a seat on her bed. She avoided thinking about the fact that Sesshomaru could be completely undressed only a room away. She allowed her mind to wonder and think about other things until unintentionally her thoughts reverted back to Sesshomaru and made her cheeks turn a deep crimson. She covered her face with her hands and shook the impure thoughts from her head. With her face still in her hands she set her elbows on her knees and sighed.

Kagome suddenly felt her skin crawl and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Someone, something lightly tapped her shoulder. She instinctively punched forward; her eyes clenched closed and made contact with something hard and smooth. It didn't move. She opened her hand and felt the surface she just punched. A deep rumbling noise erupted in the silence of the room. She peeked out of one eye and slowly looked up to her hand. She found her hand exploring the creamy white skin of the abdomen of a Sesshomaru. She was feeling the stomach of a lethal killer. _Great._ A lethal killer that was…_purring_?

_No, dogs don't purr._ She dismissed it as some sort of growl of satisfaction, but she was still confused. She couldn't really imagine Sesshomaru growling in _satisfaction_.

Setting the whole purring thing aside she took a second look at her hand. Sesshomaru was only wearing his hakama. He'd removed his shirt almost as if he started to get undressed and forgot what he was doing in his drunken state. She didn't doubt that that is what happened. She was touching a shirtless Sesshomaru. Her heart rate increased greatly. She wasn't sure if it was from the embarrassment or fear.

She looked up at his face. He was still…purring. His expression was of pure content. Eyes closed and a light smile. She smiled to herself. It was a cute expression. An expression that she'd never expected to see on someone as hard as Sesshomaru. Finally after a couple of seconds of swooning she noticed that Sesshomaru was staring at her with heavy lids, a glowing expression that she'd never expect to be seen on _his_ face. She watched him lean in toward her until she could feel his breath on her ear.

"This Sesshomaru can hear it: your heart." Her heart skipped a beat then began to beat so fast she thought that it was going to go explode right out of her chest. She could feel heat overtaking her entire upper body in a widespread blush. She felt the warmth on her ear again.

"Why," his voice softly rumbled out with a sigh, "did you stop…?" Kagome stiffened. She hadn't realized that she was still rubbing his abdomen or why she'd even started to. She pulled the appendage away from Sesshomaru but he caught it and brought it back to his stomach and held it there. He propped up his leg on the bed and rested his head on her shoulder. Kagome sat completely stiff and unsure of what to do. What was he doing?

Sesshomaru nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck. Kagome, uncomfortable with the close proximity was frozen. He inhaled her scent deeply. Feeling his nose and lips lightly graze her shoulder and neck forced Kagome out of her frozen state. She shivered. It was a feeling that she'd never experienced.

Upon inhaling her scent, Sesshomaru's senses were awakened. He woke from his drunken state and suddenly was completely aware of where he was and what he was doing. He'd finally snapped back to reality. He froze, his head resting on her shoulder. Keeping calm he evened his breaths and remained still. He would think of something, some excuse, some way to get out of his current position, hopefully. Kagome, noticing the sudden stop in movement tried to turn her head a little toward his.

"Sesshomaru?" She whispered. She glanced as his back. She could see his muscles slightly expanding with each even breath. "Sesshoomaru?" No answer. She lightly tapped his shoulder. "Sesshoooomaaaruuu."

"What is it, woman?"

"Oh! You're awake."

"Of course this Sesshomaru is awake." He said, still resting on her shoulder. There was a moment of awkward silence where the both of them weren't exactly sure of what to say or do. Then suddenly Sesshomaru got up, grabbed the hand Kagome had on his stomach and dragged her into the other room. He let go of Kagome's hand pointed toward the clothing on the bed.

"Clothe me" He ordered. He'd completely avoided the situation entirely and moved on as if it had never happened. It was much like all of the similar experiences Kagome had had with Sesshomaru that made her feel like that. Sesshomaru was good at acting like certain things didn't happen. So much sure she sometimes doubted herself, half convinced that they really hadn't happened.

Aside from that just happened, he'd just _ordered_ her to do something. Kagome stared at him, her eye almost twitching. She sighed and picked up the clothes from off the bed and straightened them out a bit. She took what he said as asking for help. She couldn't honestly expect him to actually _ask_ for anything. She didn't need to top off the awkwardness with a fight. What needed to happen was for Sesshomaru to get dressed so they could go out and shop for clothes for him. The faster that happened the sooner she could show him what he wanted to see. And the sooner that happened, the sooner they would be returning to the past.

"Hold out your arm." Sesshomaru did as he was instructed. She held up the shirt for him to slip his arm into. Once the one arm was in she went to the other, the stub. Sesshomaru put it into the sleeve of the shirt as she held onto the front so it would stay on. Once this was done she began buttoning it up. When that was all finished she looked over to the boxers and pants and bit her lip.

_As long as he can at least put the boxers on by himself I can help with the pants. Hell, he can probably put the pants on himself. _

"Um," She said while playing with a strand of hair, "Go ahead and put the boxers and pants on and let me know when you're finished. I'll help you with the button and zipper and stuff." She picked up the boxers and handed them to him. These go first." Not really sure what to say she just turned around and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She thought hopefully this time he would actually be able to get dressed, especially since it seemed as though he wasn't drunk anymore. Which, now that she thought of it, was kind of strange. She passed it off as a demon thing and sat and waited for him.

He watched her exit the room. He shivered slightly. He could still sense her touch on his abdomen. She left her scent behind. He lightly set his hand on his abdomen almost attempting to recreate the feeling. He almost wondered if the feeling would be the same if he wasn't drunk. Angry with himself he dismissed those thoughts. Thoughts that he shouldn't have been having about a human. He had to get back to the task at hand.

Now that Sesshomaru was no longer drunk it didn't take him long at all to put the pants on. He went to the button and zipper. The zipper looked like it was supposed to go up and the button was to go to through the hole to seal the pants. Understanding this he pulled up the zipper and fit the button through the hole. (Yes, he just did that with one hand)

_Simple enough_. He thought

"This Sesshomaru is finished" Kagome peeked through the doorway just to make sure that he was right. Seeing that he really had his pants on –I don't know why she would think that he wouldn't have his pants on probably just like, if he'd actually put them on right= She walked up to the now fully dressed Sesshomaru and assessed his appearance. It was almost perfect save for the fact that his pants were far too short. She glanced down to his now zipped up zipper and fastened button.

"Oh," She smiled a bit nervously, "you figured it out." _Thank gawd._ (HAHA! You thought I was going to have _h_er do it, didn't you. DIDN'T YOU! ~It's okay…I thought I was going to too)

"Of course, this Sesshomaru is perfectly capable of dressing himself, at least, when sober. This Sesshomaru was simply not accustomed to putting on this sort of shirt." He looked down at his shirt, "With so many fastening devices, it would have been tedious to fasten them all with one hand."

"Oh, okay." She stood kind of confused, but moved on. "Okay so it is…" She glanced at a clock on the wall, "seven o' clock. Now would probably be a good time to go and do some shopping. We'll get some pants that are…" looked down to the hem of his pants that fell short by a few inches, "longer. A few rules for going out. The number one rule: No killing." She poked him in the chest. "It's morally wrong here, not to mention illegal. Rule number two:" She counted on her fingers. "No destroying. Three: If people are rude, ignore them. Four: No one here is going to know of your status. They aren't going to treat you like a prince. People are… self centered and might not think twice about shoving you out of the way or something else rude. Just…don't attack anyone or cause a scene. Oh! And five: Never leave my side. I don't know what would happen if I lost you somewhere in the city. Everything sound okay?"

"Hn," Most of this seemed pretty obvious to him. The people being rude was going to be very annoying and frustrating that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it, but he didn't want to upset Kagome. And as far as staying by her side the whole time, he didn't have much of a choice. The overpowering scent of human filth would need to be covered by her wildflower scent. The necklace would help for a while but there was no guarantee.

"Alright. I'll grab some cash and we can get going." She smiled. She grabbed his hand and led him out of the room and down the stairs. "Oh!" She remembered. "Sota~, she called to him in a sing song voice. "Sesshomaru and I are going out. Mom should be back soon." She waited for a response. All that could be heard was a muffled sound of simulated gunshots and moans of zombies. "SOTA?"

"I heard ya! Bye." He shouted down annoyed and clearly too engrossed in his game to care.

"Geez. Fine." She quickly grabbed the money that her mom left them and led Sesshomaru to the door. She opened it and let him go first. The poison air rushed into the room and blew Sesshomaru's hair back slightly. He braced himself for the toxic smell of the outer futuristic world but nothing came. Thankfully the smell was nullified by his newly acquired rosary.

Kagome stared at him for a few seconds to gauge his reaction. Seeing that He didn't faint she smiled.

"Well this is a good sign."

"Hn." The two left the house and proceeded down the countless stairs that led out of the shrine. At the bottom, parked on the side of the street, was a little white Toyota Avalon. Her family decided to get a car when Kagome turned 18. Kagome and her mother both got their licenses at the same time. It was convenient for her mother who did all of the shopping and easier to get Jii-san to doctor's appointments.

Sesshomaru stood looking at the strange looking metal beast. And not only this was strange, but everything on the road was strange. Everything made of hardened materials and not a bit if dirt or gravel to be seen. He saw one of the metal beasts glide by fairly quickly.

"They move." He blinked looking at Kagome. Kagome smiled at him.

"Yes, they do. That's how we're going to get into town. In this time lots of people use vehicles called cars. That's what this is." She said pointing at the Toyota. "It just makes transportation a lot easier." Sesshomaru nodded. "So… Let's go." She opened the passenger's side and motioned for Sesshomaru to get inside. Sesshomaru ducked his head down low to get into the car. It was a tad cramped for his size. He was too tall for a car like this. Before she closed the door Kagome looked at Sesshomaru. He looked almost like a normal human sitting in a car. Of course this didn't include the fact that he was a bit too tall, had long silver hair, yellow eyes, demon markings and nice sharp claws. But knowing him it was hard to not notice those features. She just hoped that they weren't all that noticeable to other people. She closed the door for him and jogged around to the driver's side. She hopped in and started the car. Sesshomaru flinched in the slightest not expecting the metal beast to roar but kept his calm having to trust Kagome and that she knew what she was doing.

It was ridiculous. Reduced to having to trust a human. Sesshomaru was beginning to think that it wasn't such a great idea to come into the future. It wasn't really all that worth it to him. He had to change everything that he was wearing, change his behavior, risk passing out from the putrid human smell, he couldn't kill anyone and he had to TRUST a human girl. Sesshomaru grasped the handle to his side to secure himself. He'd been in vehicles before, he just wasn't sure of how this one operated. It would be a little while before they reached the shopping district in Tokyo. Sesshomaru would have to bear it for a while longer.

Meanwhile at the Castle,

Taiki stepped out of the bath completely refreshed. He grasped his hair in a bunch and managed to squeeze out as much moisture as he could before flipping the long tresses behind him. He grabbed the yukata he'd laid out for himself before he went in and quickly threw it on like a robe. He fanned his face with his clawed hand as if to blow the steam away from him. The spring was very hot and relaxed his muscles and nerves after a long day of doing absolutely nothing. Standing in front of the front gate for 18 hours wasn't necessarily the most entertaining job, especially when no one was after the lord of the west. And currently there were no death threats against Sesshomaru, so work was kind of slow for our poor dragon demon.

He wiped the sweat off of his creased brow. Taiki walked into the kitchen where the kitchen staff was busy at work cleaning up from the meal that they'd just made for Rin. He walked through the kitchen and looked all around not quite finding exactly what he was looking for; dodging the staff that was running hither and thither throughout the kitchen doing whatever it was that they were supposed to do. Then something set off his dragon senses and his pointed ears twitched. He made a complete 360 and caught an object that had been flying at him fast and hard one handedly.

"Aah haah! Almust got you dare Taiki." A very tall and burly demon bellowed at the shorter, most slender demon.

"Katsuo," He took the object in his hand and examined it. It was what he was looking for alright. He uncorked it, tilted his head back took a large gulp of fresh and cold milk. "I just bathed; I didn't have cause to bathe again." The larger demon held up both of his hands defensively. He stood very tall above the shorter demon. Katsuo's real name was Sunkanmi, a rhino demon from Africa. He traveled up to Japan for his own reasons, well there weren't that he really felt the need to share with anyone. Sesshomaru took the foreigner in and allowed him to work in the kitchen staff because of his possible African influence on the cuisine. He believed that Rin might find an African dish every once in a while to be interesting. That, and Katsuo was as strong as he appeared. He would be a valid asset to Sesshomaru's army if war was to come about. But for now he worked in the kitchen.

"Jost hafin a leettle fon weet chya. No need for atteetude, preencess." Katsuo smirked gripping a cloth that was around his neck that he most likely used for cleaning. A large vein in Taiki's forehead bulged and his eye twitched. His hand flexed impulsively and shattered the jar that Katsuo had given him causing milk to spill everywhere and shards of glass to fall in front of him. He hated being called "princess". Looks that most women would consider "handsome" were called "girlish" by most of the larger demons in the castle. Taiki's strength wasn't shown through bulging muscles. Only his friends, or people who could survive a fight with him, dare call him princess lest they have a death wish.

With movements not seeable by human eyes Taiki swiftly picked up all of the shards of glass and gracefully hurled them at Katsuo like sharp daggers. Taiki looked up to assess the damage. There wasn't any. The shards of glass had bounced off of his thick rhino-like skin like it was nothing.

"Damnit," he cursed through gnashed teeth. Katsuo looked down at his torso and smirked.

"Ya know eet takes much more den dat donchya?" He said while gesturing to himself.

"Yes, of course." He said as he disappeared in a mist. The kitchen was overcome by an almost solid red fog. The chefs around the kitchen, very used to the fighting, all groaned.

Taiki looked left and right. He could see clearly through the "fog". There wasn't really any fog at all. It was one of the powers he had. He could create illusions. Though he could see, he couldn't Katsuo. He then got a spine chilling sensation.

"I won't be fallin' for your magik triks, Taiki." Katsuo took Taiki's head in his large hand and slammed his head into the ground making an impressively large crater in the floor.

The fog instantly disappeared. Taiki lay on the floor motionless. Katsuo wiped off some imaginary dust from his person and he looked down at the beaten dragon demon.

"Eet looks like I've won. Now stand op and accept your defeat, dragon." He chuckled, reaching out his hand for him to grab. Taiki remained completely stationary. He didn't appear to be breathing. "Kweet jokin' around Taiki. Geet up." His eyebrows creased, mildly concerned. He went down on his knees next to Taiki's body. "You've gotta be keeden' me…" He reached out toward him to shake him from unconsciousness. But just as he was about to touch him, he disappeared in a blast of mist.

"Not falling for my magic tricks are we?" Taiki's sharp claws were at Katsuo's neck ready to cut. "Perhaps you thought the illusion was over? Well you were wrong." He pressed his claws lightly against his neck.

"All rieet all rieet, I get eet. You ween. I geev up." He raised both of his hands in surrender. Taiki brought his claws away from the rhino demon's neck and stepped back. He reached out his hand to help him up.

"Good round, old pal." He said bowing as he let go of his hand. Katsuo returned the bow. Out of the illusion Katsuo looked around. The crater was gone but there was still a mess on the floor. The rest of the kitchen staff had already left. He took the cloth that was resting around his neck and begun to wipe up the spilt milk.

"Nothin' like a little night time exercise." He threw the milk soaked rag into a nearby bucket and stood up. "I soppose you'd be likin' some more meelk?" He looked around. Taiki was already gone. "Dat sneaky leettle…" he chuckled. He stretched his arms up and let out a big yawn. "Well I suppose I otta be geetin' bak to work." He grabbed another cloth and started cleaning the floors, humming tune.

Taiki gulped down the cool refreshing milk as he walked toward his room. He would have loved to stay and chat with Katsuo but he had things that needed to be attended to. Once he was inside his room he quickly disposed of the bottle he'd been drinking from. He sat plopped down onto his bed. In his palm he conjured a red misty substance. From his claws came a crimson liquid that spilled down his fingers and mixed into the mist. The liquid and the mist fused to form a flat dark crystal. Then, as if the crystal sucked in all of the light, the room became dark and the crystal began to glow. In turn his eyes began to glow a pure white and his hair was thrown back behind him from the gusts that were coming from the crystal. He began to chant a mantra:

"Asato mā sad gamaya  
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya  
Mṛtyormā amṛtam gamaya

AKANE OIDE!"

Something that looked like red lightning spouted from the stone. The entire room flashed red, then the rock floated up from his hands. The face of a beautiful young demon woman appeared in the gloss of the rock.

"Yes master?" She nodded. She had dark pink hair and blood red eyes. Her face pale and her lips seemingly dyed a scarlet. High cheek bones and delicate lines to her face. She was near perfect.

"How are _they_ doing."

"They are doing fine master. They should be ready soon. Maybe within a month"

"A MONTH?" He roared his fangs bared.

"Yes, a month sire."

"Damn. Is there any way to make them ready faster?" He crossed his arms and began to tap his fingers against his arm.

"I shall look into it master." She nodded.

"Good, very good. Keep up the good work Akane. Resume your work, I have no further need to speak with you."

"Yes master." She nodded once more. The crystal disappeared in a mist and blew out the balcony.

He got up and followed the mist out to the balcony. He watched it rise up and travel with the clouds.

"Very good. My plans are coming along nicely…"

End Chapter~

6

Sorry it's been so long… I promise I'll write more _

School just sucks. =_=

Thank you for reading.

~And sorry if Katsuo's lines are weird… I just wanted to put the point across that he has an accent.~

And the mantra:

From ignorance, lead me to truth;  
From darkness, lead me to light;  
From death, lead me to immortality

4


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